ABERDEEN’S Balmoral Group is hoping to cash in on the burgeoning market for remotely operated vehicles, especially deepwater units, by developing a suite of new-generation buoyancy systems with depth capabilities to 7,000m.
The company has long been at the cutting edge of deep and ultra-deep polymer-based buoyancy systems for the offshore industry – a pioneering spirit that has not always worked in its favour, though the firm has won through.
The buoyancy systems now specified for ROVs and their tooling packages make use of high-performance syntactic foams not dissimilar to those developed for production riser buoyancy systems for Total-operated Girassol, which marked a milestone for Balmoral.
Research suggests that more than 650 new workclass ROVs will be required to meet industry demands over the next five years.
While the sector is reported to have spent $1.6billion on ROV operations during 2008, this figure is forecast to rise to some $2.4billion by 2012.
With a shortage of vehicles and personnel, demand will continue to outstrip supply, even in the medium term, with costs having escalated by almost 50% during 2008 alone.
Global recession threats notwithstanding, continued high levels of activity in deepwater hotspots such as West Africa and Brazil should ensure vital technologies such as ROV operations will continue to flourish even during the current oil-price downturn, which is widely expected to be short-lived.
All told, expenditure on new-build ROVs is expected to top $2billion during the period 2008-12 – a not inconsiderable opportunity as buoyancy is a significant cost item on such vehicles.
Dr Bob Oram, Balmoral’s technical director, said: “We’re recognised as innovators and technical leaders in the field of subsea buoyancy and the introduction of these new materials represents a period of sustained R&D investment and effort from the company.
“The components and production processes which have been developed are, to the best of our knowledge, unique to BOE. We’re confident the range will open up new opportunities for ROV design and construction companies.”
Recalling Girassol, group chairman and MD Jim Milne said: “We have a solid background in providing class-leading materials and systems that have been put to the test in the most demanding situations imaginable.
“The hybrid insulation and buoyancy system developed for the Girassol field is a good example.
“Balmoral invested $20million in R&D for that project, developing cutting-edge technology for the industry along the way.
“To this day, we are still the only company to have deployed such a material. No one else has managed to replicate our technological breakthrough.”