Fugro embarks on another task to convert PSVs into geotechnical vessels
Fugro embarks on another task to convert PSVs into geotechnical vessels - Offshore Energy
Fugro embarks on another task to convert PSVs into geotechnical vessels
Fugro is planning to repurpose two platform supply vessels (PSVs) into geotechnical vessels. This news comes as the Dutch company is currently in the process of repurposing two other PSVs into geotechnical vessels.
Fugro announced it had reached an agreement to acquire the Wartsila-designed Sea Goldcrest and Sea Gull PSVs, which will be used as geotechnical assets.
The addition of these two recent vessels, built in 2019 and 2020 respectively, to its owned fleet is expected to further strengthen Fugro’s ability to address the market demands and shortage in geotechnical capable vessels.
Upon delivery of Sea Goldcrest in 2024, the conversion to a geotechnical vessel will start, with the vessel expected to be operational in early 2025. Sea Gull, which is already under charter with Fugro and fully operational, will be delivered in late 2024 or early 2025.
The purchase of the vessels is also said to support Fugro’s net zero 2035 roadmap as both vessels are fuel efficient and suitable for the conversion to low-carbon fuels.
“For Fugro’s market leading position, vessels are key strategic assets. As communicated during the Capital Markets Day in November, part of Fugro’s strategy for the coming four years is to secure long term vessel capacity, especially for the global offshore wind market, which has a particularly large need for mapping of soil composition and its associated properties via the extraction and testing of soil samples. For the foreseeable future, these activities cannot be executed with smaller and/or uncrewed platforms,” Fugro said.
To remind, Fugro acquired the 2015-built Topaz Endurance and Topaz Energy, renamed Fugro Resilience, in February to convert them into geotechnical vessels. Ulstein Design & Solutions has been tasked to redesign and convert the vessels.
The vessels are joining the Fugro Quest in the geotechnical fleet which the Dutch company acquired in December 2022.
The Netherlands-headquartered company also recently reached a binding agreement for the acquisition of the remaining shares in SEA-KIT International.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.