WITH hundreds of billions of euros forecast to be spent on maritime renewables in European waters over the next decade and more, huge business opportunities that barely existed five years ago are opening up.
In two to three years from now, the North Sea offshore wind-turbine population will pass 1,000. In another 10-20 years, one prediction is that the total could hit the 18,000 five-megawatt turbines mark, based on the current EU target of some 90 gigawatts of generating capacity in what is also one of the world’s most important petroleum provinces.
For the upstream offshore oil&gas supply chain, renewables is an opportunity that more and more companies view as complementing their existing client base. It is already clear that the two sectors, in fact, share much in common.
For Fugro, the opportunity is obvious. Windfarms require extensive surveys every bit as detailed and precise as those required by the offshore industry.
Moreover, the company has the ships, technologies and expertise to enable a smooth engagement without impacting its extensive and growing global oil&gas business portfolio.
Fugro has appointed a renewable energy specialist. His name is Tony Hodgson. His task is to seek out contracts and to co-ordinate the various relevant specialists within the wider group and who are linked internally using a cross-divisional business network.
“His responsibility is to co-ordinate our effort to capture renewables business, looking after all elements,” says Chris Mott, commercial manager at Fugro Survey Ltd in Aberdeen.
“This includes desk studies, geophysical and geotechnical surveys, positioning work, installation work, trenching, and so on. Basically, the full gamut of services offered to the oil&gas sector is applicable to offshore renewables.
“We’ve been speaking to some potential UK Offshore Wind Round Three developers about our services.
“We’re a member of Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group and British Wind Energy Association and we participate in their events. We have also competed in the Carbon Trust’s turbine foundations contest.”
Mott believes that supply-chain companies with a North Sea pedigree provide their clients with major advantages over newcomers that are attempting to cash in on the emerging renewables boom with little substantive experience of what this hostile energy province can throw at the unwary.
In the survey world, one of the clearest examples of this is vessel size and equipment levels. It is for a very good reason that survey firms with a track record in servicing the demands of petroleum companies in the North Sea today generally work with ships of around 65-70m length overall and which are capable of multi-tasking. The near dozen survey vessels that Fugro currently has potentially available for offshore windfarm developments in North Sea waters are all around that size and multi-role – variously carrying out geophysical, geotechnical and environmental survey as required.
Should the client require, all three services can be carried out in the same voyage, including onboard processing and interpretation.
Large vessels can deliver high levels of accuracy in up to three-metre seas, stay at sea in all weathers, have extensive survey suites and are comfortable work platforms for personnel.
Try this on with, for example, a 20-25m mini-survey boat of the kind that some developers have used for near-shore wind projects because, on the face of it, they are cheaper to charter than their larger, more experienced, oil&gas-honed brethren.
Mott regards such an approach as false economy. In particular, it takes just moderately poor weather to curtail surveys being conducted by small vessels. And if life can get tough for such craft working on coastal surveys, then the proposed large deepwater projects covered by Round Three could prove untenable for them.
“Wind developers really do need the experience of companies like Fugro, and I think they’re gradually learning the lessons of Rounds One and Two,” he says.
“Going for the cheapest day-rate isn’t the best option. What the developers should be doing is evaluating companies bidding for survey work on the basis of value proposition; not just a single survey, but bundled work that, with the kind of experience we have, can help them stay on the critical path and harvest much higher value than they would if they simply went for the cheapest option.”
Mott says that the level of work being offered by the still-infant offshore wind sector has generated a greater demand than had been expected.
He says, too, that Fugro has a clear lead, both in terms of vessel capacity and capability, and that two new-build geophysical vessels will join the fleet in 2010 – one in March (Fugro Searcher) and the other near the end of the year (Fugro Galaxy).
“These are the first geophysical purpose-builds since Racal ordered the Lady Harrison in 1982. They are being built to our own design by Fassmer in Germany.”
The FSSV 65 (Fugro Standard Survey Vessel) class is designed to set a new standard for the future.
Each of the sisters measures 65m length overall by 14m breadth, has a designed maximum speed of 12.8 knots and range of 6,000 nautical miles, and will be equipped to conduct hydrographic, geophysical and geotechnical surveys.
The vessels will also have a powerful on-board data processing capability.
Recommended for you
