Offshore Projects News Roundup | September 20 – Surveys in Europe and Australia, French and Taiwanese windfarm installations and more

Construction work progresses on wind farm projects in Taiwan and France as surveys are in the pipeline off Australia and Italy. Subsea installation works will be undertaken in Brazil. Lastly, a decommissioning project will cover four large platforms in the UK North Sea.

Allseas secures TAQA decommissioning work

Allseas has been awarded a decommissioning contract by TAQA UK for the removal and disposal of
multiple Northern North Sea (NNS) facilities.

The engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal (EPRD) contract comprises TAQA’s Eider Alpha, Tern
Alpha, North Cormorant, and Cormorant Alpha platforms. The combined weight of the topsides and jackets to be removed is around 114,000 tonnes.

Allseas’ task is to remove four platform topsides, three steel supporting jackets and transport to a suitable
onshore yard facility for dismantling, with the aim of reusing or recycling 95 per cent or more of the materials.

The platforms are located close to each other, approximately 100 kilometres north-east of Shetland, in water in depths ranging from 150 to 167 metres. All structures will be lifted and removed to shore as single units using Allseas’ heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit.

Platform removals are planned post 2025.

Fugro to perform site surveys for future Italian offshore wind farm

Renexia, part of Italy’s Toto Holding, has awarded Fugro a survey contract for the Med Wind floating wind farm in the Strait of Sicily.

Fugro will provide Renexia with detailed marine geophysical and environmental surveys, deploying state-of-the-art equipment and specialised personnel to acquire comprehensive geo-data at the proposed wind farm location and along the two proposed export cable corridors. Acquisition will be made at depths of between 300 and 900 metres.

The results of the analysis will be used to advise on geohazard risk mitigation and identify a safe route for installation of the two export cables.

Once completed, Med Wind will be one of the largest renewable energy projects in the Mediterranean Sea, with 190 floating turbines for a total installed capacity of 2.8 GW.

Shearwater GeoServices, WesternGeco ink agreement on seismic acquisitions

Shearwater GeoServices has entered into a multi-year agreement for the purchase of geophysical data acquisition services by WesternGeco, and the award of a survey in Australia under the new agreement.

The agreement enables access to Shearwater’s full range of acquisition technologies and its global fleet of seismic vessels.

The survey award, in the Bonaparte Basin offshore Australia, will last approximately two and a half months and will be conducted by the acquisition vessel Geo Coral. The survey is subject to regulatory approvals in Australia.

The objective of the proposed seismic survey is to provide an improved subsurface image of the eastern flank of the Vulcan Sub-basin and Londonderry High. The new data will provide an improved understanding of the subsurface, which to-date has been limited due to legacy surveys being unable to resolve shallow carbonate intervals and complex faulting.

TechnipFMC bags TotalEnergies subsea EPCI contract offshore Brazil

TechnipFMC has been awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract by TotalEnergies.

The work will be undertaken in TotalEnergies’ Lapa North East field in the pre-salt Santos Basin offshore Brazil.

TechnipFMC will reconfigure and install umbilicals and flexible pipe in a new configuration that will further secure the production of the field.

Jan De Nul completes windfarm foundation installation in Taiwan and turbine installation off France

The Jan De Nul Group successfully completed the installation of the 47 jacket foundations and 188 pin piles, and the four export and 47 inter-array cables on the Formosa 2 offshore wind farm in Taiwan.

In the coming weeks, a vessel of local partner Dong Fang Offshore (DFO) will continue facilitating walk-to-work access for the teams finalising the terminations of the cables, allowing the energisation of the entire wind farm. Jan De Nul will complete the remaining cable burials and stabilisations in the course of September 2022.

Jan De Nul has also successfully completed transport and installation of 80 sets of 6MW wind turbine generators at the Saint-Nazaire Wind Farm project in the Bay of Biscay 12 kilometres off the French coast. The installation lasted five months and was completed in early September.

The Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm will have a total capacity of 480 MW when it becomes operational by the end of 2022.