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INTERVIEW ROB LANGFORD, VP, GLOBAL OFFSHORE WIND ob Langford has worked in the offshore to better understand what we're trying to achieve,” said industry for more than three decades, ‘cut- Langford. “Some of them do understand, but I think ting his teeth’ in a UK design frm working there's more work to do in that regard to meet the renew- in the North Sea oil and gas platforms, the able energy goals.”

Rholy grail of rigorous conditions in offshore energy production. From that start he – like most other burgeoning leaders in the sector – became ‘mobile and Is There Good News?

global’, working with SBM in the foating offshore world By its very nature, bad news sells, and there is no excep- with FPSOs and the turret business, then moving to New tion when it comes to offshore wind. At the end of ’23

Orleans to work on Gulf of Mexico deepwater projects rolling into 2024, the industry hit signifcant regulatory with Shell. Eventually he settled in Houston, working roadblocks – driven by environmental concerns, both real with engineering and advisory/EPC companies for off- and manufactured – coupled with a rapidly changing eco- shore developments and another stint at SBM, which en- nomic situation [ie. runaway infation] that caused several tailed project work globally. key stakeholders, early movers, to head for the exit. While

About fve years ago he made the switch over to off- the cost of project delays and cancellations have a real im- shore wind, working for Worley as senior director of off- pact on the players that remain, Langford maintains an shore wind, and today he fnds himself at ABS as the VP of optimistic outlook long term.

Global Offshore Wind, a pivotal cog in helping to facili- “We are engaged with multiple US OSW wind de- tate this emerging market globally. velopments and seeing an up-tick for CVA, technology review and risk reduction services in early development phases,” said Langford. “With new lease rounds coming

Roadblocks on the Wind Path and new opportunities, we do not see a big slowdown for

Like most organizations in the maritime and offshore OSW developments apart from the obvious project delays sectors, renewable energy and sustainability are a focus and re-bids.” aread for ABS. “We are growing and evolving our services To date the U.S. has more than 30+ commercial scale across all offshore infrastructure along with our continued projects underway and more to come, as BOEM approves support to the marine industry,” said Langford. “We con- more projects and lease areas. Virginia Offshore Wind and tinue to hire key individuals and partner to provide best- Revolution is in construction; Southfork is into installa- in-class solutions.” tion, “so Orsted remains a key player in the U.S.”

Also – like most companies in the maritime and off- “Equinor and BP obviously split the JV where Equinor shore sectors – today it is not possible for ABS to put takes the Empire Wind development and BP continues a defnitive number on ‘how fast, how far’ this business Beacon Wind,” said Langford. “New Jersey awarded a will grow. “It is diffcult to provide quantitative fgures as combined 3.7MW of offshore wind capacity to Invenergy, this is driven by the developers and approval regime,” said energyRE’s Leading Light Wind Project and Attentive En-

Langford. “However, we are gung ho about making this ergy LLC’s Attentive Energy Projects in January 2024; all happen, and we are confdent that the offshore wind busi- good signs for the industry. RWE and OceanWinds are ness will grow year-on-year.” also eager to push forward with their developments.”

While there are plentiful regulatory and environmental Another good news story that could and should emerge hurdles, they are not alone. is an energized U.S. shipbuilding and repair base, an order- “One of the main risks I see is the onshore infrastruc- book packed with new ships and boats to feed this emerg- ture to support fabrication, staging, O&M along with grid ing market. While that has yet to transpire, Lanford as- connectivity and PPA’s,” said Langford, noting that vessels sesses the potential.

to support installations are proving problematic, too. “To meet the US offshore wind goal of 30GW by 2030,

From the government side, he sees a need for further we see the demand of 5 to 7 installation vessels, 12 to 15 support – incentives and subsidies – to develop ports and service operation vessels and 50 to 60 crew transfer vessels projects. “We need to help educate the local communi- by 2030. Adding dredges, rock installation vessels, cable ties, helping them [especially government representatives] layers and feeder vessels, the U.S. Department of Energy

MARCH/APRIL 2024 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 27