Australia’s first deep water hyperbaric chamber testing and maintenance facility is to be built in Western Australia as part of a comprehensive regional deep water testing facility.
Announced by the Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade, Roger Cook, the Government is to contribute half of the $1.2 million the facility is to cost where it will be built at the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson.
Mr Cook said hyperbaric testing was used to validate the design and manufacturing of products intending to work in subsea conditions or other high-pressure environments.
He said the process offered assurances to manufacturers and customers that the equipment they worked in would perform safely and correctly.
“(Building) Australia’s first hyperbaric chamber test facility right here in our State demonstrates our strategy of diversifying our economy by creating new industries and jobs,” Mr Cook said.
“This world-class facility will streamline the test and repair process, providing significant time and cost savings across the subsea industry for operators and equipment suppliers,” he said.
“Jointly funded by the State Government and industry, this is an exciting step towards the development of a comprehensive regional deep water testing facility in WA.”
Mr Cook said Australia didn’t have suitable hyperbaric test facilities to accommodate subsea control modules at the moment meaning they must be sent overseas for inspection and repairs.
“This extends supply chains, increases transport cost and risk, reduces visibility of repairs or fault diagnostics, and has led to many operators carrying larger than optimum spares inventories,” he said.
He said that once it becomes operational later this year, the new facility is expected to provide local subsea control module testing, reducing test and repair turnaround times from up to four months down to just two week.
“This is an exciting step towards the development of a comprehensive regional deep water testing facility in WA,” Mr Cook said.
He said the facility will be able to expand to provide local capability for repairs and maintenance, further minimising cost and schedule delays.
“This is the first step towards development of a more comprehensive regional deep water testing facility in WA,” Mr Cook said which would be led by the Subsea Innovation Cluster Australia, industry partners Baker Hughes and Matrix Composites and Engineering, and supported by the LNG Jobs Taskforce.
