Mooring Systems News

“Wind Turbines: The Bigger, the Better” -USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, August 24, 2023Last December the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed sale notice regarding new development areas for utility scale wind projects in the central Atlantic Ocean. The notice includes an upfront issue: the need to mitigate conflicts with U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) activities. BOEM explains that in certain areas the Air Force has set an airspace floor of 1,000 feet above sea level and the Air Force asked BOEM to keep structures below that height.

Germany's top utility RWE has signed a Letter of Support with the Port Authority of A Coruña to facilitate the scaling-up of the port capacity in support of the Spanish government’s floating wind targets.Working together under a Letter of Support, the partners will investigate the potential for transforming infrastructure at the Port of Coruña, in northwest Spain, into a logistic hub for the marshalling, assembly and deployment of major components for commercial-scale floating…

NOV’s APL group has received technology qualification program (TQP) certification from DNV for its largest swivel. The swivel TQP developed by APL is claimed to be a game-changer for fluid swivels for oil, gas, e-fuels, and CO2 transfer.The TQP was developed to meet the increasing demand for larger swivel designs that can withstand higher pressures and temperatures. Large swivel stacks are used for floating production vessels to connect the processing system on the weathervaning vessel with the geostationary subsea installation.“Without the swivel stack…

Altera Infrastructure has hired DOF to install Voyageur Spirit floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit as well as one floating storage unit (FSO) at Eni-operated Baleine oil field offshore Ivory Coast.The project includes the complete installation of seabed mooring systems, flowline between the FSO – a converted shuttle tanker Nordic Brasilia - and the Voyageur Spirit FPSO, along with their associated equipment.The contract for the redeployment of the FPSO and the FSO was secured by Altera back in October 2023.Voyageur Spirit is a cylindrical-shaped FPSO…

NOV has unveiled a new installation vessel concept design tailored specifically for the unique challenges of the emerging floating offshore wind sector.Floating wind farms are often farther offshore, in deeper waters and in harsher environments, therefore requiring new and robust installation strategies.According to NOV, its new floating wind installation vessel (FWIV) concept—part of GustoMSC's Enhydra offshore wind support vessel series—is designed to operate safely, effectively and longer in the harshest environments and deep waters.

A fleet of newbuild specialized anchor handlers will be required to help build up the emerging floating offshore wind industry. But since the industry is still in its early days, many unknowns have made it difficult for shipyards and their partners to gear up to build this fleet. This article explores complex market demand and technical drivers that help give a better understanding of anchor handler requirements for floating offshore wind.Floating wind is an emerging technology currently being tested in small scale demonstration and pilot projects…

$3 billion forecast to be invested in new anchor handlers to meet floating wind demand.Floating wind is an emerging technology. Currently being tested in small scale demonstration and pilot projects, global floating wind commissioned capacity at the end of 2022 was less than 200 MW. By 2030, close to 11 GW of commercial scale wind farms are planned to be commissioned in Europe and the Asia Pacific Region. 2030-2035 will see a period a high commissioning activity as the USA joins established European and Asia Pacific markets.

Floating wind is an emerging technology. Currently being tested in small scale demonstration and pilot projects, global floating wind commissioned capacity at the end of 2022 was less than 200 megawatts (MW). By 2030, close to 11 gigawatts (GW) of commercial scale wind farms are planned to be commissioned in Europe and the Asia Pacific Region. Then, 2030-2035 will see a period a high commissioning activity as the U.S. joins established European and Asia Pacific markets. Floating installed capacity is forecast to reach 63 GW by 2035.

Montrose Port Authority says the port is set to become the first Scottish port to provide shore power infrastructure to the energy sector.To enable shore power to offshore energy industry vessels, the port has partnered with with Plug Shore Power Ltd in a 50/50 joint venture. The partnership will see an initial investment of £1 million into the joint venture which will be named Plug Montrose Ltd."Global shipping accounted for 833 million tonnes of CO2 in 2021. Currently only two British ports are equipped with shore power.

As the dust settles from Wednesday's California floating wind auction, and developers begin to discuss their plans, energy industry intelligence firm Intelatus says development of the floating wind manufacturing and installation supply chain must speed up.Developers are beginning to release details of their bids for yesterday’s California floating wind auction. The successful bidders for the two north California Humboldt sites, RWE and CIP, both bid the highest prices per square kilometer of lease area.

Dutch firm Damen Shipyards said Tuesday it was working to develop a new class of vessel that will be capable of supporting the growing floating wind industry.Damen has cited forecasts which indicate that by 2050 over 200GW or around 13,500 units of new floating offshore wind turbines will be in operation, and these turbines will be giant, and placed in deeper water than conventional bottom-fixed turbines, requiring chains and anchors of unprecedented sizes. "Even just one installation starting to drag an anchor upwind of others could have a serious impact on the output of an entire wind farm…

Singapore-based offshore energy services provider PACC Offshore Services Holdings (“POSH”) has agreed to buy the 119-meter long, DP-3 offshore construction vessel ‘BOA Deep C’ from Norway's BOA OCV AS. The vessel will be renamed ‘POSH Deep C’ and will join the POSH fleet in October 2022. POSH said the addition of the multipurpose Offshore Construction Vessel (“OCV”), built in 2003, was part of its strategy to increase its service offerings. The financial details were not disclosed."The OCV’s versatility will complement the existing fleet with capabilities including subsea installation works and turnkey towage and installation services for the floating offshore wind and energy sector…

Over the last year we have seen an upswing in floating production and storage systems ordering after many years of low activity. According to our colleagues at World Energy Reports, “The global oil and natural gas markets are contending with rebounding energy demand on top of supply disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a result, activity and business sentiment in the floating production sector has seldom been stronger.”  This increased activity in the floating production…

Gall Thomson has launched an innovative new automatic actuation system, promising to minimize safety risks associated with the manual emergency release of mooring systems during FPSO tandem offloading ocean towage, heading control, positioning and decommissioning-"PODx minimizes the risk of personnel injury, damage to equipment and subsequent downtime by remotely releasing mooring hawser chains under full load, quickly and safely," the company said.According to Gall Thomson, PODx utilizes release bolt technology that automatically separates on demand…

A fire broke out in a store room at the Petrojarl Foinaven, located at BP's Foinaven field, west of Shetland, on Saturday, prompting an evacuation of non-essential staff, BP has confirmed to Offshore Engineer."BP is working with [Petrojarl Foinaven] FPSO duty holder Altera Infrastructure after a fire was detected in a store room on board the vessel on Saturday," BP said in an email statement.According to BP, the incident was brought under control and, as a precaution, 30 non-essential personnel were safely transferred to nearby installations. In total, there were 80 people on board at the time of the incident."Five people were assessed for possible smoke inhalation but no further treatment was required.

British oil major BP has filed a decommissioning plan for the removal of the Petrojarl Foinaven FPSO and the recovery of associated mooring systems, the risers and dynamic umbilicals from the Foinaven Field, located 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Shetland in water depths of up to 600 meters.The FPSO and related equipment will be transferred onshore for re-use, recycling or disposal as appropriate. BP last year said that the Petrojarl Foinaven FPSO had to be taken off-station as it had reached end of its 25-year service life, operating in a harsh environment, and now the company has filed the removal plans with the UK authorities.The FPSO is owned by Petrojarl 4 DA (part of the Teekay Corporation group) and is currently chartered by BP under a bareboat charter party.

The world’s FPSO fleet is getting older, with 55 FPSO units in the global fleet reaching the end of their design life in the next five years, with an additional five having life extension in place. With 19 more FPSOs currently being evaluated for life extension, safety issues and structural integrity concerns come to the fore? Matt Tremblay, ABS Vice President, Global Offshore, explains the challenges for FPSO operators, and discusses why a new working group comprised of major…

Norwegian firm Ocean Installer, best known for its subsea installation services in the oil and gas sector, in December 2020 changed its name to Havfram - Ocean Forward in Norwegian - saying the name change reflected the company's growing commitment to offshore wind. Now, less than a year after the name change, the company is further strengthening its offshore wind commitment with the plan to order a jack-up wind turbine installation vessel capable of installing giant wind turbines of the future, aimed at the growing U.S.

A pair of fully-electric road ferries are now on their way from Damen Shipyards Galati to Lake Ontario, Canada, to begin operations. Ordered by the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario, Canada, the Amherst Islander II and Wolfe Islander IV, 68 and 98 meters in length respectively, departed the yard on August 26 to be loaded on the semi-submersible transport vessel Super Servant 4 and will arrive in Lake Ontario in mid-September.Both of the open-deck vessels are equipped to be fully-electric…

Italian offshore engineering and construction firm Saipem, in a joint venture with South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd (DSME), has won a contract with Brazil's Petrobras to build an FPSO for the Búzios offshore field in Brazil.The FPSO P-79 project is worth overall approximately $2.3 billion. Saipem’s portion is approximately $1.3 billion.The FPSO vessel will allow initial separation of gas from the oil extracted in the deep offshore reservoir and will have a production capacity of 180…

Dutch marine services company Boskalis said it has acquired the Southern Ocean, a large DP2 construction support vessel (CSV) capable of executing a wide range of offshore operations.The 134-meter vessel, which was previously jointly owned by Oceanteam and Bourbon, was recently hired by Boskalis for a two month job in Asia starting in February.It will now be renamed Boka Ocean and deployed on various types of offshore energy projects, such as the installation of array and export cables…

While the EU parliament call for an emissions ban at berth, Yara Marine Technologies announced a partnership with NG3 signaling the return of cold ironing to its green tech portfolio."We used to do shore power projects on ships some years ago, but the market was too slow. Now however, with new regulation and grants supporting shipowner’s shore power investments, we are back in the business of shore power," said Aleksander Askeland CSO at Yara Marine Technologies. "Together with…

The floating offshore wind industry, currently at its beginnings, is set for massive growth in the years to come, which has now led the classification society DNV GL to released the first integrated rule set for floating offshore wind structures."The rules provide both new entrants and experienced stakeholders a set of well-tested rules and standardized processes for these new structures," the company said.According to forecasts in the Carbon Trust’s new Floating Wind Joint Industry Projects report…