Balmoral is an Aberdeen-based offshore services company established in 1980 and has an enviable reputation across the world for product design, development and delivery. Over the years, it has built successful relationships with clients working with them from concept development and advice through to product design, manufacture, testing, delivery and support.
The company is renowned for providing buoyancy, protection and insulation product solutions for the offshore oil and gas sector, however, in 2018, Balmoral began to develop its offering for the offshore renewable energy market allowing the company to provide the following product solutions:
Now established in the green energy sector, Balmoral aims to be one of the go-to solution providers in the offshore renewables market. As a result, it took part in our Fit 4 Offshore Renewables (F4OR) programme in order to increase its competitiveness and capabilities in the fast-growing renewables market.
Balmoral was assessed over two phases of the F4OR programme – the first industry-agnostic Business Excellence phase focused on core business management systems and the second Sector-Specific phase focused on key competencies required for success in the offshore renewable energy industry.
Due to the similarities in business practices for offshore renewables and oil and gas, when assessed on Business Excellence, the company was initially scored very highly but took the opportunity to further develop in this area by taking advice from the programme advisors on how best to adapt these business processes to the renewables industry. In the Sector-Specific phase, it was again initially assessed and determined to already be a highly capable and competent organisation but was encouraged and supported to further develop its Health and Safety and Environmental Management systems to ensure it secured the F4OR accreditation and had the industry standards in place that would help sustain their capabilities in offshore renewables.
In gaining F4OR accreditation, Balmoral now benefits from a level of endorsement from an established, independent body, such as ORE Catapult, as they diversify further into the world of offshore renewable energy. The accreditation will also help to showcase how 40 years of experience and knowledge from the oil and gas sector can be adapted and translated into the green energy industry as the UK moves towards the energy transition.
We were excited when we first learned of F4OR as we felt it was a great fit for our innovative approach in general and to the offshore wind industry in particular, Going through the accreditation process is rigorous and brought out the best in our team. I am also very grateful to F4OR for their support throughout the exercise. I believe achieving F4OR granted status demonstrates that our processes and people are among the best in the industry and we look forward to working with the group in taking our sector-leading fixed and floating wind solutions to the domestic and international markets.
