NLB Oban

The Board has operated a base at Oban on the West Coast of Scotland since 1904. In 2000 it underwent a £4.2 million redevelopment to turn a buoy yard into a multi functional support base. The base has excellent facilities for berthing ships, landing and refueling helicopters, maintaining, painting and repairing buoys, engineering support and project mobilisation. NLB Oban has excellent communication links, being served by main road and rail and is computer-linked to NLB Edinburgh.

The bases houses the NLB's Engineering Support and Test Facility which has modern electrical workshops, its buoy servicing facility, NLB long term spares and consumable stores and is the Area Engineering base for the west coast maintenance team. 

Maintenance of floating aids to navigation is carried out at NLB Oban using modern and environmentally conscious processes. The navigational buoys are maintained to the highest standard to allow for six years continuous deployment "on station" in harsh environments; at the end of which the buoy is brought back to Oban for refit and replaced by an exact duplicate. 

NLB Oban is equipped with duplicated aid to navigational monitoring equipment to allow the continued monitoring of the Board's aids to navigation in the event of a failure or loss of equipment at its Monitor Centre in Edinburgh.

For the efficient transfer of materials and personnel to remote locations the Board contracts a helicopter 365 days a year. NLB Oban provides full support for this facility. This includes a helicopter landing area, fuelling, fire fighting, safety briefing, and a fully trained helicopter marshalling team. The preparation of loads meets with the requirements of the International Air Transport Association.