Balmoral Offshore Engineering (BOE) has officially opened the doors of its subsea test facility in Aberdeen on Wednesday.
His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, officially opened the Balmoral Subsea Test Centre in front of more than 100 guests.
Since January 2016 the new building has been taking shape at Balmoral HQ and now covers the area of more than six tennis courts rising to 18 meters in height with craneage capacity of up to 40 tonnes.
Jim Milne CBE, chairman and managing director of Balmoral, said: “I am immensely proud of the facility and am hugely grateful to my colleagues and subcontractors who have worked extremely hard to create this facility in what is our 38th year of operations. I think you will agree the centre represents a remarkable feat of engineering – even more so when you consider it was completed within two years.
“In these highly risk-averse days the requirement for product testing is ever-increasing, the size of products is ever-increasing and the demand for just-in-time delivery is the norm. Relying on third party test houses would put us in a very uncompetitive situation, that’s why we carry out as many processes as we can in-house – from product concept to material development, testing and realization. That’s what separates us from the rest of the market.
“We are here to celebrate what I believe is an outstanding and enduring addition to Aberdeen’s reputation as a key player in the energy sector and one of the United Kingdom’s most innovative cities.”
The new facility offers a wide range of procedures including hydrostatic, mechanical and laboratory trials providing the industry with a comprehensive resource for all types of subsea equipment testing, the company said.
New and upgraded vessels installed underground simulate conditions to water depths equivalent of 7000 msw, 23.100 ftsw.
Bespoke software has been created to allow full test traceability and real time observation from anywhere in the world, BOE explained.
Predominantly used for in-house testing and development work the centre is also available to customers spanning the energy, defence, oceanographic and academic sectors.