TUV SUD NEL completes base construction of £16 million test facility

TUV SUD NEL, a specialist in flow measurement research and development, has completed the base building that will house its £16 million (€18 million) Advanced Multiphase Facility (AMF). Construction began in September 2017.

The company says that once the AMF is completed its test range capability of operating pressures, temperatures, flowrates and metrology will be beyond anything currently available. It also claims that the facility’s ability to operate at pressures up to 150 bar will double current capabilities to replicate extreme production conditions.

The AMF will span 1,600 square meters and contain a £1.45 million (€1.65 million) full production scale separator, with an operating weight of 270 tonnes. The AMF will also offer an integrated subsea choke, as well as be capable of testing the full range of flow meters from two-inches (50.8mm) to twelve-inches (304.8mm).

Alongside providing opportunities for industry-led projects and training, the AMF will also support academic research. Creating at least seventeen new jobs, the AMF is meant to ‘futureproof’ the delivery of innovative technical services to the oil and gas production market for the next twenty-five years.

Scottish Enterprise has supported the development of the AMF with £4.9 million (€5.5 million) of research and development funding. Alongside the grant from Scottish Enterprise, TUV SUD NEL’s parent company, TÜV SÜD AG, is investing £11.1 million (€12.6 million), making the project the largest capital investment in the company’s UK business to date.