Page 33: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2022)

REPAIR & CONVERSION OFFSHORE WIND

The shipyard viewpoint came through in remarks from well as on larger construction vessels.

Darren Truelock – Vard US’s Vice President, Houston Opera- Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), another stalwart from tions, opining that: “The east coast is obviously not the Gulf the oil and gas business, has attracted attention with its Jones of Mexico. And so we’ve been working hard on whole form, Act quali? ed newbuild SOV under construction for Ørsted/ station keeping, sea keeping, operational capability of the Eversource. ECO has also been active in electri? cation. At the gangway, operational capability of a 3D crane, ? tting in ev- end of 2020, it had announced a contract with an oil major erybody in a single bunk, with huge warehouse spaces, too. customer where a battery system would be installed about an

We’ve been working to those requirements, and we’ve been ECO 312-ft. class PSV. working particularly hard to take those requirements and mak- While the changes in the energy landscape are likely to ing them cheaper to build and trying to push it below that bring about continued good news for retro? ts, and for new- $100m threshold. We’ve won some and we’ve lost some, but builds (for example, Master Boat Builders working with it’s extremely hard right now, especially with the steel prices.” Crowley on its eWolf- battery powered tug that will serve San

Diego, to be delivered mid 2023), the negative impacts on the

It’s Electric Covid 19 front are still evolving. The facility shutdowns in

Electri? cation will lead to a new wave of conversions March and April of 2020, with rampant virus spread, saw tem- across many U.S. yards. Harvey Gulf has now pioneered the porary closures of yards, or production delays with sick-outs “tri-fuel” concept being implemented on four of its platform in facilities deemed “essential” early on, that remained open. supply vessels (PSVs) at its owned yards. According to Verret, Throughout 2021, shipyards, like many other skilled trades “Harvey Champion already has a battery pack aboard,” with businesses, were bedeviled by staf? ng shortages. Two years three sister vessels set to also see installations. In the future, on, as we move into 2022, the builders and ship- repair yards he anticipates installation of batteries on additional PSVs (in- will all be watching variants, vaccine mandates, and grappling cluding three other 310-ft. class vessels in Harvey’s ? eet), as with factors that we can’t easily predict.

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