TerraSond and Benthic have been awarded a combined geophysical and geotechnical survey contract for a pair of floating offshore wind sites secured in last year’s Scotwind auction.
The firms – part of marine services group Acteon – were awarded work by the BlueFloat Energy-Renantis consortium behind the Bellrock and Broadshore wind farms northeast of Aberdeen.
Formerly Falck Renewables, Renantis and partner BlueFoat secured two leases for the projects in the landmark ScotWind leasing round last year, later naming the sites as the 1.2GW Bellrock and 900MW Broadshore.
A further project, the 1GW Stromar scheme, is also being developed by the consortium alongside a third partner Orsted.
While Benthic and TerraSond have acquired and processed wind site data before, this award is the first site investigation for TerraSond in the North Sea and the first combined contract for the two Acteon brands.
Benthic said it would use its seafloor portable remotely operated drill (PROD) for both projects, following successful deployments with the tool in site investigations off the UK east coast and in Europe in 2022.
The geophysical scope will involve using the Ocean Fortune, a geophysical survey vessel designed specifically for year-round North Sea operations, which TerraSond has on long-term charter.
Local content will be provided from Acteon’s various bases in Aberdeenshire and Acteon Geo-services brand UTEC’s in-house data centre in Livingston.
“We are delighted to be supporting a partnership that has deep knowledge of and experience in developing floating wind projects, and of community engagement in Scotland,” says Sudhir Pai, EVP for Acteon’s data and robotics unit.
“Our early involvement will provide detailed engineering and data interpretation services to help all project participants understand the seafloor composition and structure. The integration of these studies under a single contract minimises interfaces and creates significant efficiencies for our clients.”
“Acquiring a detailed understanding of the ground conditions around our Broadshore and Bellrock offshore wind farms is a significant step in our development plans, and we are delighted to be partnering with Acteon Geo-services on this piece of work,” added Renantis and BlueFloat partnership managing director Susie Lind.
The announcement came on the same day as the developers of the ScotWind Ayre and Bowdun schemes, confirmed that survey work for their projects had also begun.
G-tec is leading the first phase of the work, which is the geophysical surveying of the seabed at both sites, leasing zones NE2 and E3.
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