Offshore Project News

An official launch ceremony was held to celebrate the commissioning of a new Jones Act compliant crew transfer vessel (CTV) built for American Offshore Services (A-O-S)—the company's first.Constructed by Blount Boats in Warren, R.I., the 100-foot-long aluminum catamaran is owned and operated by A-O-S, a joint venture formed in 2020 by leading European CTV operator Northern Offshore Services (N-O-S) and U.S.-based investment firm OIC.The vessel will support Ørsted and Eversource’s portfolio of offshore wind farms in the Northeast…

Renewable energy firm Avangrid and fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said on Thursday their joint venture, Vineyard Wind 1, has begun operations at five of its wind turbines, supplying 68 megawatts (MW) to the New England grid.Currently, the project has successfully installed nine turbines and is in the process of installing the 10th, with preparations underway to transport the 11th turbine to the offshore project site.Offshore wind projects in the U.S.

Danish shipowner CBED has signed a contract with Hughes Subsea, a subsidiary of OEG Energy, for Wind Evolution’s first offshore project, just three weeks after acquiring the service operation vessel (SOV).With the new walk-to-work contract, CBED has secured full activity for Wind Evolution SOV until early first quarter of 2025, with two additional one-year options to extend the project contract.OEG Energy’s Hughes Subsea specializes in subsea services across the offshore oil and gas, renewable energy, and other sectors.CBED will take delivery of Wind Evolution end of March 2024.

The U.S Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council on Thursday approved the construction of a $1.5 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.The project, Revolution Wind, is run by Danish company Orsted and U.S.-based Eversource, and would bring a total of 704 megawatts (MW) clean energy to Connecticut and Rhode Island.Another offshore project by the two wind energy developers, the South Fork wind farm off the coast of New York, delivered its first power to the state's power grid on Wednesday.Offshore wind development has been a priority for the Biden administration.

A storage vessel for Mexico's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant departed U.S. waters on Monday for Altamira, Mexico, according to ship tracking data, putting the offshore project on track to soon inaugurate exports.LNG developer New Fortress Energy last week said its 1.4-million-metric-tons-per-year Altamira floating LNG project had begun processing gas. The company earlier this year had postponed the inauguration amid delays in receiving the infrastructure."We're excited to announce that we've achieved first gas for our Fast LNG 1 unit…

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday approved the Empire Wind offshore project, owned by Equinor and BP, the sixth commercial-scale wind farm to be greenlit under President Joe Biden's administration.Empire Wind is among several offshore wind projects facing construction and financing cost blowouts that the troubled industry says would not be covered by existing power sales contracts, but it could be helped by a new auction planned by New York state.Along with Danish counterpart Orsted, Equinor and BP have taken a combined $5 billion of writedowns on U.S.

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is offering to sell up to 1 million barrels of Corocoro crude through an intermediary, sources said on Wednesday, which could become the first sale of that grade in two years.Since Washington temporarily eased oil sanctions on the country last month, PDVSA has been allocating spot cargoes of crude and fuel oil through little known firms that contract with trading companies, which ultimately deliver to refiners. PDVSA and Italy's Eni ENI.MI…

Energy ecosystems are evolving as the value of offshore power-to-X production is being realized.Flexible and delivered in long lengths on reels in a fast-track operation, thermoplastic composite pipeline can transfer up to nine times the amount of energy as a cable and can be used to store hydrogen, increasing the uptime of offshore wind farm generated power.That’s according to Netherlands based supplier Strohm, member of the Hydrogen Offshore Production for Europe (HOPE) project and the Dutch floating green hydrogen and ammonia OFFSET project.

Norwegian company Scana said Monday that its subsidiary Seasystems had signed a sizeable contract for the delivery of an anchoring system to an FSO project offshore West Africa."This is a sizeable contract for Scana, valued close to NOK 50 million [currently around $4,8 million]," Scana said.Under the contract, with an unnamed client, Seasystems will deliver mooring equipment such as dual-axis chain stoppers and chain handling systems. The delivery is expected for the first quarter of 2024.“Seasystems has worked systematically to develop hardy and cost-effective mooring solutions…

Commonwealth Wind said late Monday it will move forward with a submitted but not yet approved power purchase agreement with Massachusetts electric companies and its 1,232-megawatt offshore wind project.Commonwealth made its announcement after the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) denied, in early November, Commonwealth's motion to suspend its agreement. That motion raised questions about the future of Commonwealth's offshore wind project.Commonwealth is a unit of Avangrid Inc.…

ROV services firm Rovco has chartered the VOS Star vessel from owners to support the delivery of its offshore wind farm projects. The 68m long DP2 multi-purpose support vessel will support Rovco’s increasing number of secured offshore wind campaigns throughout 2022, including the provision of hydrographic survey solutions on operational offshore wind farms in UK and Dutch waters.On the vessel, Rovco will mobilize a dedicated and experienced offshore team, to operate its Seaeye Leopard Work Class ROV systems…

In research prompted by the incident in the Dutch North Sea in January when a drifting bulk carrier hit offshore wind facilities, Dutch maritime research institute MARIN this week, with industry partners, tested three innovative barriers aimed at averting collisions between ships and wind turbines.The drifting bulk carrier Julietta D initially collided with a tanker before hitting a transformer platform and a turbine foundation for the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm currently under…

Engineering and technology group, Technip Energies has acquired a 16.3% stake in X1 Wind, a startup that has designed "an innovative and disruptive" offshore wind turbine floater.Technip Energies is the lead investor in this funding round, which also counts with the participation of the European Commission-owned European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, advised by the European Investment Bank (EIB), and some of X1 Wind’s previous shareholders. Under the terms of the agreement, Technip Energies will hold two of the nine seats on X1 Wind’s Board of Directors.Also…

AqualisBraemar LOC, an energy and marine industry consultancy, has agreed to buy the UK operations of ship design and marine consultancy company OSD-IMT from the Dutch-based Damen Shipyards Group.OSD-IMT is a specialist consultancy in ship design for new build, refit, and conversion projects. The company operates the renewables, maritime, defense, and offshore oil and gas sectors."Combining OSD-IMT's wide track record with ABL Group's own expertise in specialist ship design, marine…

Offshore drilling company Transocean has reached a deal with Singapore-based Jurong Shipyard - a Sembcorp Marine subsidiary - to delay the delivery of the ultra-deepwater drillships Deepwater Atlas and Deepwater Titan, originally ordered in 2014. As part of the agreement, Jurong Shipyard has agreed to accept deferred payment for both rigs, Transocean said.The Deepwater Atlas and Deepwater Titan are the world’s first eighth-generation ultra-deepwater drillships and only rigs to feature a 3…

Norwegian based Siem Offshore said it has entered into a contract with an undisclosed subsea construction company for an offshore project in the Gulf of Mexico.The project will utilize the Bahamas-flagged offshore support and construction vessel (OSCV) Siem Spearfish for a scope of work consisting of subsea and remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) duties. The contract has been awarded under a minimum duration of 110 days, plus options, Siem Offshore said.Siem Spearfish will commence its new charter in direct continuation of its current commitment in West Africa…

Offshore wind caught a favorable gust with the 2020 election of Joe Biden, and the following breeze from the early 2021 reconfiguration of the U.S. Senate toward Democrats. Though widely touted as a growth engine for maritime businesses (as well as shoreside trades), the latter years of the Trump administration seemed to see delay after delay.The class society DNV has been involved in offshore wind since its outset in the early 1990s, and now has 2,000 energy experts working in its efforts supporting this power source.

Danish offshore support vessel operator Maersk Supply Service will continue providing marine support to The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit engineering and environmental organization working to rid oceans of plastic pollution.The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to develop advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. To achieve this goal, the company's aim to stop the inflow via rivers and clean up what has already accumulated in the ocean. Its ultimate goal is reaching a…

Three FPSO specialists are competing for Santos' Dorado FPSO front end engineering design contract, set to be awarded later this year.This is according to Carnarvon, Santos' partner in the Dorado field discovered offshore W. Australia in 2018, and dubbed one of the gas-rich country's largest oil discoveries of the century.Santos and Carnarvon have envisioned the development to include an FPSO and a Well Head Platform that will support the production and ancillary wells and connect to and supply the FPSO.

French electricity giant Électricité de France (EDF) is moving into the Irish energy market.EDF Renewables, a subsidiary of the French energy utility, has acquired a 50% stake in the Codling offshore wind project from Hazel Shore, a company linked to the property developer, Johnny Ronan.EDF Renewables will develop and build the project alongside Fred Olsen Renewables, which owns the other 50% stake in 1100MW Codling Wind ParkIt is the first investment by the international energy player in the Republic.The Codling project is located south of Dublin, 13 km off the coast of County Wicklow thus benefiting from the favorable conditions for offshore wind off the east coast of Ireland. The initial development work started in 2003.

China's Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) shipyard has delivered another Guyana-bound FPSO hull for the Dutch FPSO specialist SBM Offshore.Following the delivery of the Liza Unity hull in late 2019, SWS on Monday delivered the Liza Prosperity hull, the second hull built under SBM Offshore's Fast4Ward standardized-FPSO-hull program. The construction of the FPSO Prosperity hull started in January 2019.The FPSO Prosperity is expected to be deployed at ExxonMobil's Stabroek block offshore Guyana, as part of the Payara oil field development.

As the U.S. offshore wind industry begins to build up, the U.S. Coast Guard is training to ensure it is prepared to respond to any potential emergency—even at 400 feet in the air.Last week, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, N.J., an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., and several surface assets from the Virginia area conducted a simulated rescue operation on wind turbines at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project approximately 28 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach…

Several workers on a BP Plc oil platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico have tested positive for coronavirus, the company said on Wednesday, a day after a worker at BP's operations in Alaska also tested positive.The cases are the first recorded among oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, and follow a positive test at an Equinor offshore project in the North Sea.A case of the coronavirus was also reported at BP's Whiting, Indiana refinery, according to local media reports.More than 850…