Arne Blystad's Offshore Heavy Transport (OHT) is stepping up its drive into the burgeoning wind turbine installation sector after drawing on its heavylift expertise.
Chief executive Torgeir Ramstad told a Clarksons Platou Securities offshore wind webcast that planning the move has been an involved process.
"It's a long story going back five years," he said. "We saw oil and gas markets declining in the long term and we thought it was a promising time for offshore wind.
"OHT already had project execution capability in transporting heavier stuff around the globe. We met designers and developers and told them, 'what if we could develop a vessel concept that could install these next generation foundations in one day per piece?'"
Out of this came the semi-submersible Alfa Lift vessel concept, the first of up to four of which is due from China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) next year.
Newbuild move pays off
For this ship design, OHT took the "bold" step of developing a floating installation solution, which will install in DP mode, and Ramstad said "carry many more units per trip in order to cut the time per unit".
Last month, this paid off when it clinched a contract with Norwegian energy major Equinor for transport and installation of 190 foundations for the Dogger Bank development off the UK from 2022.
But OHT was also taking a look at the market for turbine installation units and identified the same gap in the market, Ramstad said.
"Having already built the organisation and structure around the Alfa Lift, we saw that the next step up would be easier than the previous one," he said.
Button pushed
"We decided to push the button and order two turbine installation vessels of the latest design to be capable of handling the next generation turbines."
"We saw the need and value of moving quickly to the market."
CMHI will also build the new duo, with options for two more, but no prices have been revealed.
The vessels will be jack-ups of a GustoMSC design and will feature a telescopic crane with maximum capacity of 2,500 tonnes and a maximum lifting height of 165 metres.
They can work in water depths of 65 metres.
The units will feature energy and heat recovery, battery hybrid solutions and a sophisticated electrical and control system, reducing CO2 emissions by 20% compared to similar units.
"The commercial and delivery terms are very attractive in today’s market," OHT said.
The first unit will be delivered in early 2023, while the delivery structure for the second unit is flexible.
"We are responding to client concerns about the lack of capable vessel capacity in the booming offshore wind market," Ramstad said. "We hear them applauding the development of a capability by a single company to handle the transport and installation of next generation foundations and turbines."
