bp and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG have awarded Fugro a geotechnical site investigation contract for their new offshore wind farms, Morgan and Mona, located in the Irish Sea.

This marks bp’s entry into the UK’s offshore wind power sector and, when complete, Morgan and Mona will have a combined generating capacity of 3 GW, sufficient to power the equivalent of 3.4 million UK households with clean electricity.

Fieldwork will run from May to September 2022, with the site located approximately 30 km off the coast of North Wales and North West England in an area known for its severe currents and challenging offshore environment. Fugro will rely on their premium vessels, Fugro Synergy and the Normand Mermaid, to complete geotechnical investigations. These operations will also include the use of Fugro’s SEACALF® Mk V Deepdrive system for seabed cone penetration tests (CPTs), as well as the SEADEVIL® for vessel-based and seafloor downhole testing.

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A study commissioned by Crown Estate Scotland has concluded that connecting offshore wind installations directly to oil and gas platforms would help decarbonisation, support economic activity, and help new companies enter the offshore renewable energy sector. 

The report follows the announcement in February 2022 of the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) offshore wind leasing process proposed by Crown Estate Scotland. INTOG is the first leasing process of its type, bringing together the oil and gas industry and offshore wind sector to help achieve shared goals of innovation and decarbonisation. 

INTOG will see developers applying for the rights to build small scale innovative offshore wind projects of less than 100MW, as well as larger projects connected to oil and gas infrastructure to provide electricity and reduce the carbon emissions associated with those sites. 

This new report says that with a rapidly expanding offshore wind market, large numbers of companies are now seeking to diversify into the sector, some for the first time. It highlights the combination of government policy, demand, and supporting infrastructure that make Scotland an attractive location. 

The report also highlights INTOG’s potential for off-grid solutions, by connecting wind turbines directly to oil and gas platforms, negating the need for connection to the shore.  

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Global offshore services business OEG Offshore has “massively broadened” its renewables capability by snapping up Manor Renewable Energy Ltd .

Acquisition of the temporary power, engineering and vessel business, which boasts group turnover in the region of £30m, advances OEG’s fast‐paced strategy to deliver integrated offshore service packages across the world.

Bringing Manor Renewables’ expertise, reputation and track record into the OEG fold instantly enhances its topside offering following its purchases last year of offshore welfare leaders Pegasus Welfare Solutions Ltd and offshore radio‐communications specialists Fern Communications Limited.

At the same time the purchase of Hughes Subsea Services last autumn expanded its subsea position in renewables installations and maintenance.

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Hellenic Cables, the cable segment of Cenergy Holdings, has been awarded the Dogger Bank C array cable contract by DEME OFFSHORE SERVICES BV, the renewables business unit of DEME Group. Already the designated cables’ supplier for Dogger Bank A and B, with this contract Hellenic Cables becomes the sole inter-array cables’ supplier for the world’s largest offshore wind farm. 

Dogger Bank C is a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Equinor, while Dogger Bank A and B are owned by SSE Renewables, Equinor, and Eni. SSE Renewables is leading the construction and delivery of all three phases of Dogger Bank Wind Farm, while Equinor will operate Dogger Bank Wind Farm on completion.

Under the new contract, Hellenic Cables will design, manufacture, test, and supply approx. 240 km of 66 kV XLPE-insulated inter-array cables and associated accessories. This is in addition to 650 km of array cables already awarded for phases A & B. The cables will be produced at Hellenic Cables’ vertically integrated, state-of-the-art submarine cables plant in Corinth, Greece. Production of the cables for Dogger Bank C is set to begin in 2023 and delivery will be a phased roll out in line with the project execution program. 

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Scotland could become a world leader in producing low carbon concrete foundations for floating offshore wind farms, according to a study funded by RWE, which is now increasingly involved in floating wind.

The study identified potential business opportunities from the current ScotWind seabed leasing round, and calls on Scottish politicians, project developers, suppliers and industry experts to join forces and investigate how best to unlock the potential, while maximising opportunities for local investment.

The research was carried out in partnership with researchers at the UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE), through its Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FOWCOE), and was also supported by offshore wind industry experts at the Concrete Centre.

The study focused on concrete foundation designs and tested the feasibility of a production facility, capable of building 33 concrete floating foundations for 15 megawatts (MW) turbines each year with researchers reviewing Scotland’s existing experience and capabilities for producing specialist concrete focused on using low carbon methods and materials.

They found that both Scottish ports and industry have existing experience and skills from producing concrete at scale that can be applied to this low carbon alternative.

In terms of scale of opportunity, the study noted that just a single project would require a volume of low carbon concrete potentially up to four times greater than that needed to build one of Scotland’s largest infrastructure projects, the Queensferry Crossing.

It also said that to keep costs low and reduce carbon footprint, concrete production should take place at or close to the quayside where the foundations would be deployed and identified four Scottish ports – Hunterston, Kishorn, Port of Cromarty Firth (Invergordon) and Ardersier, as well as clusters of potential sites, including the Cromarty Firth and the Forth and Tay, which could potentially meet the capacities required.

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Three winners are sharing a £1million prize for ideas that could help cut greenhouse gas emissions by moving forward the drive to electrify platforms in the North Sea.

The Decarbonisation competition for the electrification of offshore oil and gas installations  was launched by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), working with Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), to fund technical and commercial studies on offshore electrification in the UK North Sea as part of the North Sea Transition Deal outcomes. 

The following winning applications look at various ideas that could speed up essential electrification projects. The three companies must now complete work on their studies by 31 March 2022, with project reports to be published in Q2 2022: 

Orcadian Energy (project lead): Innovative concepts for the electrification of offshore installations in the Central Graben (Award:£466,667)

Ørsted (project lead):Addressing technical and commercial requirements of windfarm connections with offshore installations (Award: £239,360) 

Katoni Engineering Ltd: An optimised interface for distributed offshore renewable sources supplying existing offshore installations with secure and low-emissions power(Award: £335,280) 

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Boskalis has been awarded a contract for the transportation and installation of the monopile foundations and substations for an offshore wind farm development with a value of approximately EUR 450 million.

Boskalis’ successful track record in offshore wind energy is founded in Europe and has expanded to Asia in recent years and more recently to the US East Coast. Boskalis’ unique offering of marine transport and installation capabilities through its state-of-the-art Bokalift 1 and Bokalift 2 crane vessels and versatile heavy transport fleet are ideally suited for large-scale offshore wind projects.

This contract ties-up one year of crane vessel utilization days in addition to the equivalent of two years of heavy transport vessels. Engineering and pre-construction work has already commenced and project execution is scheduled to commence in 2023.

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THE new UK Infrastructure Bank has announced the first ever project it plans to invest in – and it is based in the North East.

The bank, which launched in June 2021 to finance innovative infrastructure projects, tackle climate change and boost growth across the United Kingdom, will invest £107m in the new South Bank Quay at Teesworks.

The loan will see part of the former Redcar Steelworks site along the River Tees transformed into a 450-metre quay to service the offshore wind sector, providing opportunities for manufacturing, storage and mobilisation of wind technology.

The UK Infrastructure Bank deal will support around 800 jobs directly, with the potential to unlock thousands of jobs in total across the rest of the Teesworks site as development intensifies in the coming years.

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John Lawrie Metals Ltd (JLM), of Aberdeen, is to build an oil and gas infrastructure decommissioning facility in Montrose.

Announcing a 12-year lease for the site, Montrose Port Authority (MPA) said the new operation on the harbour’s South Quay would help meet demand in the North Sea.

Waste management and environmental permits from The Scottish Government will allow the facility to handle and process all types of materials produced during decommissioning.

MPA highlighted direct quayside access, together with “ease of discharge and handover of client materials” as major selling points for the site.

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Manor Marine UK Ltd has secured a contract with Mainprize Offshore to build an offshore multi role windfarm service vessel; the MO8 is a bespoke in-house designed 26-metre Supa Swath catamaran designed by Walker Marine Design and due for delivery in Q2 2022.

The build of the MO8 will be the sixth crew transfer vessel constructed by Manor Marine, but the first vessel built for Mainprize Offshore; featuring a Supa-Swath hull form, the vessel will have 175m2 of deck space, a cargo capacity of 35 tonnes, seating for 24 passengers and a maximum speed of 27 knots.

Walker Marine Design has designed several of Manor Marine’s previous vessel build projects, including both the Manor Venture and Manor Endurance for Manor Renewable Energy.

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