Balmoral Offshore Engineering (BOE) said yesterday it was investing £2million in an additional manufacturing operation at its Aberdeen headquarters.
The new 30,000 square-foot plant will substantially increase production capacity for the company’s buoyancy products, particularly marine drilling-riser modules.
BOE, the biggest division of Balmoral Group, is also looking to recruit about a further 40 people to cope with an increasing workload.
Chairman and managing director of the group Jim Milne said: “Because we are seeing an increase in orders for drill-riser buoyancy and elastomer products, such as bend restrictors and cable protection, investment is needed in manufacturing capacity and staffing resources.
“We have appointed a number of key personnel recently, including a production director and production manager as well as design-engineering and quality, health, safety and environment personnel.
“We have also recruited senior sales managers in Aberdeen and Houston.
“Employee numbers in the division have increased more than threefold since 2006 to a current headcount of more than 200.”
BOE has recently shipped products to international projects at locations including Brazil, west Africa, the Indian Ocean, Norway and the Gulf of Mexico.
A new integrated aft bridge workstation is being exhibited for the first time in the UK by Aberdeen-based Kongsberg Maritime at Offshore Europe.
K-Master combines navigation, control and manoeuvring as well as machinery automation functions in one solution.
Frank Maclean, sales manager for vessel systems with Kongsberg Maritime, said: “K-Master will be the latest addition to our newly opened 5,000sqft training and marine simulation centre at Westhill, (near) Aberdeen. The specialist centre is the largest of its type in the UK, and provides training across maritime sectors including oil and gas, subsea, marine and offshore construction.”