PARTNERING WITH ACADEMIA TO DISCOVER GROUNDBREAKING POSSIBILITIES

19 Projects completed

22 Projects ongoing

7 Research staff

15 PhD students

14 Scientific publications

22 Industry and other partnerships

The National Decommissioning Centre (NDC) is a partnership between NZTC, the University of Aberdeen and industry. The ambition of the NDC is to be the global leader in research and development which transforms oil and gas decommissioning and mature field management.

The centre is leading a £2 million project to construct a world-class testing facility for oil and gas well plugging and abandonment. The portable onshore test facility, known as a Barrier Qualification Test Chamber, will be built by Ellon-based engineering firm SengS, a Pryme Group company. It will be used by technology developers to trial new techniques that could significantly reduce the costs and risks involved in deploying new techniques for sealing wells.

The NDC teamed up with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult in a research partnership aimed at developing new offshore wind technologies. The partnership initially consists of three PhD projects, each focusing on a different aspect of offshore wind development, including the simulation of floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) systems, design optimisation of these systems, and environmental concerns.

To address similar challenges in both the nuclear and oil & gas sectors, including decarbonisation of decommissioning activities, economic impacts, cost benchmarking and remote operations in hazardous environments, NDC and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) launched a three-year research partnership, the first of its kind between the nuclear and oil and gas decommissioning sectors.

Prof. Richard Neilson, National Decommissioning Centre Director