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probably not ? uctuate as much. So that may mean we’ll many MOWU’s will be built in the first have some more appetite to take risk, but these are early batch? And are you still planning to se- days so we will balance risks and reward, continuing to cure contracts first?

build on everything we’ve learned in Odfjell Drilling. We

The ? rst units will be built towards contracts and we are know the importance of maintaining a good balance sheet.

planning two to ? ve units for the ? rst batch in ’24. And then we will gradually step up the production in our pro-

Can you discuss the business plan for your duction line. So the initial units will all be built after we’ve future mobile offshore wind units?

secured contracts, but later, as the concept and the market

Leasing is one of the business models, and with that is more proven, we will evaluate investing on speculation.

model we will operate similar to our ? eet of drilling rigs,

But again, we will have to apply our experience in risk but with longer contracts than we have for the drilling rigs taking from the drilling market. We are not speculative, since the mobilization cost will be relatively larger for these but if we see that making investments can accelerate the wind turbines compared to a drilling rig. There is also sig- market adoption, we will consider it.

ni? cant scope in connecting the power systems between the wind turbine and the consumer side.

I know we’re still relatively early, but can you dis-

But we are also offering our mobile offshore wind units cuss the expected cost to build the MOWUs?

for sale, where we continue to provide the operations and

At the moment we are keeping our cards close to our maintenance. In Norway, which is our primary market, chest, but of course our ambition is to become cost leaders. the tax regime for oil and gas is very much in favor of the Like others have said, we believe that the key success fac- operating companies owning these units.

tors for driving down the cost will be scale, and also learn-

Recently, we have also been approached by wind farm ing. This is why we think it’s so important to get started developers with inquiries about our deepsea semi ? oating with production. wind foundation, which is designed to be equally appli- cable for permanent wind farms in harsh environments.

Can we take a little bit deeper dive into the

So in that respect, our business model also includes being technology itself and specifically your partner- a design house and a solutions provider, providing technol- ship with Siemens Gamesa and Siemens En- ogy for wind farm development. ergy? From what I understand, two versions

The lease model has proven to be quite attractive for are planned, among the world’s largest.

many oil and gas operators [particularly when there is] un-

First of all, we have chosen a relatively conventional de- certainty in regards to how long they will be able to keep sign for the ? oating wind foundation, our deep sea semi. the oil and gas assets producing.

This is the technology that we know very well through our

So the whole concept of a multi-location design that can 50 years as pioneers in offshore drilling.

be redeployed proves very attractive, and it’s kind of a circular

On the turbine sites we like to go as large as possible economy approach, which is new to the oil and gas business.

because there’s economies of scale. Currently, 11 MW is the largest version commercially available from Siemens

Can you share insights on proposed day rates?

Gamesa for ? oating wind, but we will change to the 14

At this stage we do not share day rates publicly; this is a MW as soon as that becomes available in 2026. The deep very early market. We like to keep our cards close to chest, sea semi foundation that we’re designing for the ? rst batch but just like in any other market, it needs to make ? nancial is made to take the 14 MW turbine cells.

sense for our clients. Most of our projects right now are for electri? cation of production platforms, not so much

Staying on that same technology thread, drilling rigs but production platforms where the oil com- can you explain what exactly WindGrid is?

pany either will purchase or rent the MOWU for provid-

WindGrid is a concept that we developed in order to pro- ing power to these installations.

vide uninterrupted power supply for off-grid applications.

Today, our clients normally produce their power with gas

As I understand it, the first units are ex- turbine generators, and an ef? cient co-existence between pected to be produced by 2024, part of the wind turbine generator and the gas turbine generator this funded by Enova. Do you know how was important to release the potential in renewable wind march/april 2022 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 33