More Work from the Wind Sector for Dutch Offshore Construction Yards

Once again in 2016, the Heerema Fabrication Group attracted most attention, in particular with the load-out and sail-away in Zwijndrecht of the 10,500-tonne topside for the Montrose Bridge Linked Platform (BLP) operated by Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Limited. The fabrication of this module had been started way back in 2013. The topside measured 75 metres long, 45 metres wide and 40 metres high. The load-out and sail-away took place in April, on board the H-541 transport barge owned by Heerema Marine Contractors. That same contractor subsequently deployed its semi-submersible crane vessel Thialf to install the topside in the British 22/17 block, in the North Sea.

A second load-out and sail-away soon followed from the Heerema yard in Zwijndrecht, on this occasion involving a topside and a jacket for a small unmanned gas production platform for Oranje-Nassau Energie (ONE). This topside weighed 500 tonnes, and the jacket a further 1,000 tonnes. Both platform sections were installed in the P11-E block in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, in May, by the jack-up vessel Innovation.

The Heerema yard in Flushing saw the handover on 13 April 2016 of the first of a series of three jackets to be fabricated for the Culzean project currently being

undertaken by Maersk Oil, in the British sector of the North Sea. This handover involved the 114 metrehigh jacket for the wellhead platform. The wellhead access deck and access way for the same platform were simultaneously fabricated at the Heerema yard in Hartlepool. All of these components, with a combined weight of 7,100 tonnes, were installed offshore in May, by Heerema Marine Contractors.

Projects under construction Also at the Heerema yard in Flushing, a start was made in 2016 on the fabrication of the two jackets of the utility and quarters platform and the central processing facility for the Culzean project. The handover of these steel structures, weighing 6,800 and 8,000 tonnes respectively, is planned for June 2017. At the same yard, construction work is underway on the jacket for the BorWin 3 substation, which following completion in March 2018 is due to be installed in the sea, 100 kilometres off the German North Sea coast. The client for this jacket fabrication is Petrofac. At the Heerema yard in Hartlepool, work is underway on the fabrication of a substation for the offshore wind energy sector. The substation will be used for the Galloper Offshore Wind Farm, currently being installed off the coast of the English county of Suffolk, by Petrofac. Both of these construction projects will be handed over in 2017. Since the start of 2016, work has been underway at the Heerema yard in Zwijndrecht on an EPC order for Statoil. The order calls for the fabrication of a 4,400 tonne unmanned wellhead platform for the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 project. Handover of this structure is planned for the summer of 2017.

Series of substations At HSM Offshore in Schiedam, 2016 was characterised by fabrication orders for the offshore wind energy sector. Hollandia Offshore in Krimpen aan den IJssel and the Iemants yards in Flushing and in Hoboken, Belgium, were also dedicated entirely to offshore wind projects. At HSM Offshore, the 1,800-tonne topside for the Danish Horns Rev C substation was handed over in June, followed in September by a 1,050-tonne jacket for the British Rampion substation. Work currently underway at the yard in Schiedam involves the fabrication of a jacket and a topside for a substation for the German Borkum Riffgrund 2 Offshore Wind Farm. The substation in question is due to be handed over in May 2018. In February 2017, HSM Offshore received an order for the construction of two transformer platforms for the Borssele Alpha and Borssele Beta offshore windfarms that still have to be built, off the Dutch coast. After Hollandia Offshore handed over the four-legged jacket for the Horns Rev C substation in March 2016, the same yard received an order in June, for the construction of two substations for the Krieger Flak Offshore Wind Farm, currently being built in the German section of the Baltic Sea. The Iemants yards completed the jackets and topsides for the two substations for the British Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm, during the course of 2016. The construction of one of these jackets had been outsourced to the NAMI yard in Ridderkerk. Other handovers included the jacket and topside for the substation for the Veja Mate Offshore Wind Farm and the jacket and topside for the substation of the Burbo Bank Offshore Windfarm. A further jacket and the topside for the substation of the EnBW Hohe See Offshore Wind Farm are currently under construction n

The jacket and piles for the substation of the Veja Mate Offshore Wind Farm heading out to sea. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties/maritimephoto.com)

Sail-away of the topside of the Montrose Bridge Linked Platform.(Photograph: PAS Publicaties)

The 114 metre-high Culzean wellhead jacket ready for transport out tosea. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties/maritimephoto.com)