Bibby Offshore is pleased to announce a move into the offshore wind array cable installation market. The company has purchased a power cable lay carousel from Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS), which will enable Bibby Offshore to lay power cables for offshore wind projects from its vessels.

Bibby Offshore and ESS have also entered into strategic alliance by way of a framework agreement. Under this strategic alliance, Bibby Offshore will provide commercial expertise supported by subsea project management and engineering experience, while ESS will provide innovation and in depth sector competence through its trenching expertise. Both companies will collaborate to develop other technologies and working methods which will benefit clients by reducing risk and lowering project costs.

Mike Wilson, Managing Director of Ecosse Subsea Systems Limited & Fraser Moonie, Chief Operating Officer of Bibby Offshore

Bibby Offshore’s entry into this new market complements Bibby HydroMap’s offshore survey capability and Bibby Marine Services recent investment in a new build ‘walk to work’ Service Operation Vessel, the Bibby WaveMaster 1.

Fraser Moonie, chief operating officer of Bibby Offshore said: “We are very excited by our entry into the cable lay market which strengthens our renewables offering in the North Sea. We have worked with ESS in the subsea market for more than a decade, and this new strategic alliance will help us further our offshore offering and support our diverse client base.”

Mike Wilson, Managing Director of Ecosse Subsea Systems Limited, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Bibby Offshore in the offshore wind arena. This will enable us to tackle much bigger projects and clients, with the opportunity to use a genuine UK owned and operated supply chain in this sector.”

Subsea 7 S.A. (Oslo Børs: SUBC, ADR: SUBCY) has announced the details of the major(1) contract award that was first announced on 20 May 2016 .

The contract was awarded by Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL)(2), for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of the Beatrice wind farm turbine foundations and array cables, offshore Scotland, UK.

Located in the Outer Moray Firth, the Beatrice wind turbines will generate 588 Megawatts of power once the wind farm becomes fully operational in 2019.

Subsea 7, in alliance with Seaway Heavy Lifting(3), will project manage, design, engineer, fabricate and install EPCI jacket foundations and array cables for 84 wind turbines, and perform the transportation and installation of the offshore transmission modules.

Project management and engineering has already started at Seaway Heavy Lifting's offices in Glasgow, Scotland, and Zoetermeer, the Netherlands, and at Subsea 7's office in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Offshore installation activities will be executed in 2017 and 2018 using Seaway Heavy Lifting's heavy-lift vessels, Stanislav Yudin and Oleg Strashnov. Both these vessels provide significant lift and installation capabilities ideally suited for the challenges of installing wind farm foundations.

Jean Cahuzac, Subsea 7 Chief Executive Officer, said: "This offshore wind farm project is our largest North Sea award to date. Subsea 7 and Seaway Heavy Lifting have a strong reputation in their respective areas of expertise. This contract recognises both companies' capability to execute contracts safely, on time and within cost targets and is another major step forward in establishing Seaway Heavy Lifting as a leading EPCI contractor in the offshore renewables market."

(1) Subsea 7 defines a major contract as being over USD 750 million and this contract is over USD 1.0 billion in value.

(2) Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL) is a joint venture partnership between SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and SDIC Power (25%).

(3) Subsea 7 is a 50% shareholder in Seaway Heavy Lifting.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced its first step toward potential leasing for commercial wind energy development in federal waters offshore California. BOEM has completed an initial review of an unsolicited lease request from Trident Winds, LLC (Trident Winds) for a floating wind energy project offshore Morro Bay, California, deemed the request complete, and will soon issue a Federal Register Notice to determine if there is competitive interest in the area.

“Today’s announcement marks an important step in facilitating the responsible development of clean offshore energy to power homes and businesses in the Golden State,” said BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper. “BOEM will work closely with the state of California, industry and a broad range of stakeholders to ensure that our leasing process is conducted in a thoughtful, engaged, and transparent manner.”

Image credit: BOEM

As part of its review, BOEM confirmed that Trident Winds is legally, technically, and financially qualified to hold an offshore wind energy lease in federal waters. BOEM’s receipt of an unsolicited lease request is the first step in a leasing process that will include environmental analysis and extensive stakeholder engagement.

The Trident Winds request, received on January 14, 2016, is the first formal interest in obtaining a lease for wind development in federal waters off California. The proposed a project would generate up to 800 megawatts (MW) of power using about 100 floating foundations, each supporting a turbine that could produce up to 8 MW. A single seafloor transmission cable would bring the electricity to shore. The proposal may be expanded to generate 1,000 MW at a later date, if additional transmission capacity and market off-take can be obtained. The project would be located about 33 nautical miles northwest of Morro Bay in water depths of 2,600‐3,300 feet. The proposed lease area is 67,963 acres.

"As California moves forward to meet 50 percent of the state's energy needs with clean, renewable energy by 2030, wind power will play an important role," said Commissioner David Hochschild of the California Energy Commission. "This offshore wind project proposal, the first of its kind, marks another important milestone."

The next step in BOEM’s process is to publish a Federal Register Notice to determine if there is competitive interest in the area requested. The Notice also requests the public and interested stakeholders to comment and provide information on site conditions, commercial, military or other uses of the area and potential impacts of the proposed Trident Winds project. BOEM expects to issue the Notice this summer.

BOEM will use the information and expressions of interest received during the comment period to determine whether there is competitive interest in the area. If BOEM determines there is competitive interest, it will initiate the competitive leasing process. If no expressions of interest are received, BOEM will proceed with the noncompetitive leasing process. BOEM will also use responses to the Notice to inform decision-making about the proposed project and to identify potential issues for National Environmental Policy Act analysis.

To date, BOEM has awarded eleven commercial wind energy leases in federal waters off the Atlantic coast, including nine leases issued as a result of competitive lease sales (two leases in an area offshore Rhode Island-Massachusetts, two offshore Massachusetts, two offshore New Jersey, two offshore Maryland, and one offshore Virginia). Competitive lease sales generated $16.4 million in winning bids for more than a million acres in federal waters. Floating turbine platforms anchored to the seafloor, as proposed by Trident Winds, offer an alternate technology for generating wind power in the deeper waters off the Pacific coast.

A copy of Trident Winds unsolicited lease request and additional information on the BOEM wind energy leasing process, can be viewed at www.boem.gov/california/.