Offshore support

Heavy-lift muscle for Japanese wind farms

Heavy-lift muscle for Japanese wind farms

Ulstein Design & Solutions has been contracted to provide the design for a heavy-lift ship for Japanese contractor Penta-Ocean Construction (POC). The vessel will specialise in offshore wind foundation installation work within the country’s waters, and will comprise a customised version of Ulstein’s HX118 design, which features a length of 215m, a 56m beam and […]

End of an era for pioneering OpenHydro tidal energy platform

End of an era for pioneering OpenHydro tidal energy platform

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) closed 2024 by completing the decommissioning of the first ever tidal turbine platform to provide electricity to the UK national grid, 18 years after its installation. The platform, supplied by Dublin-based OpenHydro, was installed at EMEC’s grid-connected tidal test site at the Fall of Warness, off the island of […]

Class AiPs for Hanwha Ocean FPSO design

Class AiPs for Hanwha Ocean FPSO design

South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean confirms that it has received Approval in Principle (AiP) from class societies ABS and Bureau Veritas for its Pre-FEED standard floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) concept. Reportedly optimised for deployment off West Africa, and with a hull designed for 20 years of uninterrupted operations between drydockings, the 340m x […]

Cable-laying ‘Freja’ joins NCT Offshore fleet

Cable-laying ‘Freja’ joins NCT Offshore fleet

Danish OSV operator and subsea specialist NCT Offshore has taken delivery of a new cable-laying vessel (CLV), Freja, which will assist its activities in the offshore renewable energy sector. Operating from her homeport of Klintebjerg, Freja measures approximately 95m in length and 21.5m in breadth and was constructed by Norwegian shipbuilder Vard. Based on the […]

Japan kick-starts floating wind turbine demo

Japan kick-starts floating wind turbine demo

A nine-partner Japanese consortium has commenced work on a 30MW+ floating wind farm, situated approximately 25km off the coast of Akita Prefecture. The consortium, working under the banner of ‘The Southern Akita Floating Offshore Demonstration Project Aimed at Overseas Expansion via Cost Reductions’, will install two floating wind turbines, each rated more than 15MW, in […]

Robots UNITE for offshore wind farm maintenance

Robots UNITE for offshore wind farm maintenance

A £1.4 million UK project is currently trialling the use of new artificial intelligence (AI) control systems for autonomous underwater robots, dedicated to offshore wind farm repairs and maintenance. The project, dubbed Underwater Intervention for Offshore Renewable Energies (UNITE), is an Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) Prosperity Partnership programme, led by Heriot-Watt University, […]

Thailand embraces a new crewboat generation

Thailand embraces a new crewboat generation

The story of Thailand’s first pair of gyrostabilised, 42m-long fast crewboats (FCBs) conceals another, writes Stevie Knight: how did Southerly Designs’ FCB concept establish a perpetual offshore presence from 2001 to today’s Gen 4 models? And how is the design faring with the push toward new technology? Southerly’s FCB concept has seen a 23-year run, […]

An urgent call to define ‘enclosed spaces’, to save lives

An urgent call to define ‘enclosed spaces’, to save lives

It seems that, no matter how many times the maritime and offshore sectors flag the problem, enclosed space fatalities just won’t go away. A recent report from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) reveals that, of 1,611 standard vessel inspection reports uploaded to its Common Marine Inspection Documents (eCMID) and Common Marine Inspection Documents for […]

Ocean Aurora promises autonomous ROV deployments

Ocean Aurora promises autonomous ROV deployments

If the subsea deployment of ROVs, AUVs and UUVs can reduce Opex and emissions, it makes sense that using an uncrewed vessel to launch and recover these drones could boost operational efficiency even further. That’s the rationale behind the design of the Ocean Aurora: a remotely operated ‘drone launchpad’ conceived by offshore survey/inspection services provider […]