Friday 5 October 2018

HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, officially opened Balmoral Offshore Engineering’s (BOE) subsea test facility in Aberdeen on 3 October 2018.

BOE, an Aberdeen-based provider of deepwater buoyancy, insulation and elastomer products welcomed His Royal Highness and more than 100 guests to the Balmoral Subsea Test Centre to celebrate the conclusion of its two-year £20m investment project.

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 18m in height with craneage capacity of up to 40 tonnes. The company had to blast through some 15m of Aberdeen’s famed granite sub-strata to accommodate the new underground pressure test vessels.

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.

New and upgraded vessels simulate conditions to water depths equivalent of 7000msw, 23,100ftsw. Most of the vessels are installed underground meaning access is at ground level making handling much easier and safer.

Bespoke software has been created to allow full test traceability and real time observation from anywhere in the world. This level of monitoring is a first for the industry and informs clients if current testing is running successfully or not.

Predominantly used for in-house testing and development work the centre is also available to customers spanning the energy, defence, oceanographic and academic sectors.