Dutch shipowner Boskalis has landed a huge charter deal for its two offshore wind farm crane vessels.
The company said the €450m ($515m) contract involves the transport and installation of monopile foundations and substations for a new development, but the location was not revealed.
The owner will deploy its "state-of-the-art" 3,000-safe working load crane vessel Bokalift 1 (built 2012) and its new Bokalift 2, which is being converted this year from the formerly idle Noble Corp drillship GSF Jack Ryan (built 2000) at Drydocks World in Dubai.
"This contract ties up one year of crane vessel utilisation days, in addition to the equivalent of two years of heavy transport vessels," Boskalis said.
Engineering and pre-construction work has commenced and project execution is scheduled to begin in 2023.
Boskalis started its wind farm work in Europe and has expanded to Asia in recent years, as well as more recently to the US east coast.
Taiwanese mission
The first job for the Bokalift 2 will be at the Changfang and Xidao offshore wind farms in Taiwan.
This is owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and two Taiwanese life insurance companies.
The project includes the transportation and installation of 62 three-legged jacket foundations and the accompanying 186 pin piles.
The deal is worth between €150m and €300m.
Boskalis says its strategy is aimed at leveraging key macroeconomic factors that drive worldwide demand.
These include expansion of the global economy, the increase in energy consumption, global population growth and the challenges that go hand in hand with climate change.
The company said the third quarter was busy, with revenue higher than the quarterly average for the first half-year, and vessel utilisation was higher.
The orderbook stood at €5.1bn at the end of September, down from a record level at the end of June, however.
More than €300m of new contracts were acquired in the third quarter.
"The orderbook is still very well filled, thereby offering a solid foundation for the rest of this year and the period thereafter," Boskalis said.
Ebitda for the second six months will be in line with the €226m achieved in the first half.
