"This laboratory will put us in a unique position, providing global coverage and increased flexibility within our testing capabilities, and contributing to our vision to be world-leading within offshore geotechnics to support the energy transition," said Lars Andresen, NGI's managing director.
"Throughout NGI's 70-year history, measuring and understanding material behaviour through laboratory testing has been of central importance. We have continually developed knowledge, equipment and procedures together with industry to improve practice, and this remains core to our philosophy today."
NGI currently has two of the world's largest geotechnical laboratories in Oslo and Houston, with over 50 employees, performing testing across the spectrum of our projects worldwide.
In 2014, NGI opened a regional office in Perth, Australia. It now has 20 employees and works on a range of projects in both Australia and Asia, and also supports the company's global teams with large international projects.
"The establishment of this new laboratory is an important step in the development of the Perth office, bringing us closer to NGI's heritage of experimental testing, and broadening both the project and research and development opportunities for NGI," said Noel Boylan, MD in Perth.
NGI's strategic decision to establish the Perth laboratory is driven by the rapid global developments in the offshore renewables and mining marketplaces and the associated demand for high-quality geotechnical laboratories, a greater focus on material behaviour within its research and development portfolio, and further development of geotechnical testing within NGI's global network across Norway, the USA and the Asia-Pacific region.
"The laboratory will be an important component in terms of increasing our technical footprint, accelerating the development of knowledge and solutions related to material behaviour and modelling. NGI's laboratory in Perth will be a unique platform for development of knowledge and solutions to improve offshore geotechnical practice in the Asia-Pacific region and across NGI," said Thomas Langford, NGI's director for Offshore Energy.
The process to establish the laboratory is well advanced and it is expected to be operating commercially in early 2023.
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