Page 24: of Marine News Magazine (October 2022)

23 25

MN

Feature

Offshore Wind der construction at the Keppel AmFELS yard in Browns- ville, Texas, to be deployed by Dominion Energy as it builds out CVOW, with components to be transported out from a revamped container terminal at Portsmouth, Va.

The WTIV, set for delivery in late 2023 (well in advance of work at CVOW), will be chartered to Ørsted-Ever- source for installation work (based out of New London,

Conn.) at two other projects in the Northeast, Revolu- tion Wind and Sunrise Wind, expected to commence in late 2023 -2024. However, the feeder barge model (with non Jones Act WTIVs being supplied from U.S. hubs by compliant barges) may be dominating plans for future tur- bine installation. Eneti, a leading owner of internationally ? agged WTIVs (and an advisor in the Charybdis project), had been unsuccessful in negotiations with U.S. yards in efforts to build another Jones Act compliant installation vessel. Vessel ? nance lawyers Watson Farley Williams highlight one important challenge in building WTIVs for the offshore trades. In a recent advisory, they note that “…

As the sector evolves, while ideally shipowners and ? nan- ciers would want to see long-term employment, we have not seen this so far and it raises the question as to how any ? nancier can get comfortable with re-marketing risk on vessels…” In contrast, where vessel newbuild are tied to servicing offshore ? elds over multiple years, longer term contracts can support longer duration ? nancings.

Recent announcements have seen U.S. maritime stal- warts teaming up with European partners, with decades of experience gained primarily in the North Sea, and crafting innovative approaches for building out and then servicing ? elds in U.S. waters.

The Vineyard Wind project, where ongoing survey work is being done from Hornbeck Offshore’s HOS Mys- tique (working out of southern Massachusetts) will see an

WTIV from DEME (a Belgian company) supplied from shore by Foss Maritime tugs and barges. Illustrative of the new solutions being brought to the sector, the U.S. of? ce of DEME is bringing in Barge Master (Dutch, with mar- ket penetration in the oil patch), to incorporate motion compensation platforms on “smart” barges to be built by

Foss. Foss, part of privately held Saltchuk is revitalizing a one-time oil products terminal in New Bedford, Mass, which will serve as a laydown area for components. Part of the funding will come from a U.S. Department of Trans- portation Port Infrastructure grant.

The Ørsted-Eversource partnership developing Revolu- tion Wind and Sunrise Wind has hired the Dutch con- 24 | MN October 2022