North Sea News

The Netherlands plans to temporarily enlist additional personnel and equipment from private companies to strengthen security in its part of the North Sea, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, confirming media reports.The decision follows reports last year from Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD that Dutch North Sea infrastructure, such as gas pipes and windmills, is the target of Russian sabotage activities.

Van Oord has installed over a quarter of the foundations which will support Sofia offshore wind farm’s 100 wind turbines in the North Sea since the start of operations in May.The Dutch contractor Van Oord is using the Port of Tyne’s Clean Energy Park as a storage and marshalling base, benefitting from direct access to its deep-water quay and connection to the North Sea.The port has been welcoming the tallest offshore installation vessel in its history, the Aeolus. Purpose-built to construct offshore wind farms…

Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel Aeolus has installed the first monopile foundation at RWE’s Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, located on Dogger Bank in the central North Sea.With a capacity of 1.4 GW, Sofia is RWE’s largest offshore wind farm to date. After its expected commissioning in 2026, the project will be capable of generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of 1.2 million typical UK homes.Following the installation of the essential subsea cable infrastructure…

Norwegian offshore vessel operator DOF Group has secured a ‘substantial’ subsea engineering procurement removal and disposal (EPRD) contract from Norske Shell in the Atlantic region.The contract outlines 100 combined days of utilization of DOF’s vessels Skandi Hera and Maersk Installer.DOF will deliver an integrated solution of project management, engineering, design, analysis and survey.Described as ‘substantial’ by DOF, this means that the contract is valued between $23.8 million and $47.8 million (NOK 250 million to NOK 500 million).The scope includes recovery and recycling of umbilicals…

Norwegian vessel owner Golden Energy Offshore Services (GEOS) has entered into contracts for two of its platform supply vessels (PSVs) – Energy Passion and Energy Paradise.The contract is with ‘Tier 1 international oil major’ whose name was not disclosed, with the operations planned to take place in the North Sea.The contract for the 2016-built Energy Passion PSV is for one-year firm, with one-year option.The Energy Paradise PSV, built in 2015, has been hired for six months firm and six months option.The gross contract value for the firm period is $14 million…

INEOS Forties Pipeline System (FPS) has selected Liebherr for the supply of a new Ram Luffing (RL) series offshore crane for its Unity Platform in the UK North Sea.After more than 30 years of service, the currently installed RL crane on the Unity Platform has run its course, and will be replaced by Liebherr’s RL 650 technology.The RL 650 crane, said to be particularly suitable for a Not Permanently Attended Installation (NPAI), will fulfil all material handling for the offshore platform…

Subsea solutions provider N-Sea Group has entered into an agreement with Rederij Groen for long-term charter of the vessel Aquarius-G, an offshore support vessel (OSV) built in 2016.With the length of 68.04 meters, 14.95 meters beam and a draught of 5 meters, Aquarius-G is said to be a well-suited vessel to execute inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM), survey, UXO, and cable operations in the North Sea.With the long-term charter of the 4-WINDS in November 2023 and now the Aquarius-G…

Norwegian offshore vessel operator DOF Group has secured two new projects – one in the North Sea and the other in Asia Pacific region – whose combined revenue is expected to bring in $30 million to the company. The first contract for DOF covers engineering, procurement, removal and disposal (EPRD) for a North Sea operator, including the project management, engineering, logistics and execution of an FPSO cessation project. According to DOF, it will disconnect, transport and pre-moor the floating unit, and retrieve and recycle the mooring system.

As Europe turns to renewable sources to diversify energy supplies away from Russian oil and gas, a peaceful marine scene conceals a billion-dollar security headache.Rising above the Baltic Sea less than 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of Denmark, 161 wind turbines spin slowly. They supply around 4% of the country's power, sent to shore through two cable connections.The turbines have no barriers or surveillance."Our technicians are only here until five o'clock in the afternoon, then they go home…

One body has been recovered and two people have been rescued in a search and rescue mission after two freighters collided in the North Sea off the coast of Germany, the maritime emergency authority said on Tuesday. The Verity, which the Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said had sunk, had been on its way from Bremen to the English town of Immingham. The Polesie was sailing from Hamburg to La Coruna in Spain. It was not immediately clear what the vessels were carrying, if anything.

Britain's Princess Anne will on Friday officially open Port of Aberdeen’s £420 million South Harbor expansion project on Friday. The project is expected to catalyze a multi-billion-pound economic and job boost for Scotland.According to a press release issued by the port, independent analysis forecast that when the expanded Port of Aberdeen reaches its full potential the port’s Gross Value Added contribution will jump 60% to £2.4 billion and increase the number of jobs supported by 45% to 17…

Norwegian Offshore Wind has signed an MoU with The Polish Investment and Trade Agency, aiming to boost offshore wind collaboration between the two countries.“These two markets have different strengths within offshore wind, and we therefore have a lot to gain on establishing strong connections between both supply chain companies and developers,” says Arvid Nesse, manager of Norwegian Offshore Wind, an organisation with 380 members.Nesse points out that Poland has experience within construction…

A fire blazed on a cargo ship off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board on Wednesday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others, the coastguard said.Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre (655-foot) Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had "resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew", and that it was in touch with family of the deceased.

Three new Incat Crowther-designed fast ferries have been delivered to serve the residents of Germany’s North Sea Island communities, who are set to receive a new commuter ferry service to the mainland.The new ferries will service three busy routes between the North Frisian Islands and Neuharlingersiel, located on the north coast of Germany’s mainland.The three vessels, named WattnExpress, Inselexpress I and Watt Sprinter, have been constructed by Singapore-based Penguin Shipyard International.According to Incat Crowther…

Bumi Armada's Armada Kraken FPSO, a production unit operating at EnQuest's Kraken offshore field in the UK North Sea, has increased operational performance following a shutdown in early June.As Offshore Engineer previously reported, the Armada Kraken FPSO was shut in in June following the failure of critical hydraulic submersible pump (HSP) transformers.The Kraken FPSO is deployed at Kraken field under a bareboat charter contract.During the first four months of 2023, the average net production from the Kraken field was 15,910 barrels of oil equivalent per day.On June 21, Bumi Armada said that production had resumed from the FPSO and was at around 60% of pre-shutdown levels.In an update on Thursday…

The Danish government has postponed the launch of a tender to establish a North Sea energy island project due to high costs, the country's ministry of energy said on Wednesday.The project included the construction of an artificial island in the North Sea that would serve as a hub to gather and distribute power generated by surrounding offshore wind turbines.

Germany cannot be relaxed about the need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the Baltic Sea, a high-ranking economy ministry official said on Monday, a week after plans emerged to scale down the region's Mukran project after local resistance. "We should not be relaxed about supply security in the next winter," said Stefan Wenzel, a parliamentary state secretary in the ministry led by Robert Habeck of the Green Party. "We cannot afford to be unprotected and we also have…

Construction of two ships for the Northern Lights carbon storage project in Norway started Thursday with a keel laying ceremony at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. (DSIC) yard in Dalian, China.Keel laying is a ceremonial recognition of the shipbuilding start in the construction dock at the shipyard. First steel for the ships was cut in November 2022."The keel laying is a major milestone in building the world’s first large-scale LCO2 transport ships. In 2024, the ships will be launched from the dock at the shipyard in China and will sail to the Northern Lights facilities in Norway…

U.S. and Canadian refiners have turned to North Sea "Forties" crude oil for the first time in seven years in the latest sign of changing global oil flows from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 2.6 million barrels of the crude are set to arrive at U.S. East Coast ports since February, according to Customs data on Refinitiv Eikon. Some of the oil is likely headed to Canada via pipeline. The light, low-sulfur Forties crudes are blended with others to replace Russian crudes that have been barred from the U.S. and Canada. Prior to the ban, about 50% of all crude from Russian ports that landed in the U.S. went to East Coast refineries, the customs data showed. The tanker Sea Turtle in February discharged 770,000 barrels of Forties and Forties blend crudes in Maine, destined for Suncor Energy.

Shell has reportedly threatened legal action against Greenpeace activists who last week boarded a heavy load carrier carrying Shell's Penguins FPSO, destined for deployment in the UK North Sea.Last Tuesday, four activists climbed aboard the Boskalis' White Marlin vessel carrying the cylindrical FPSO, in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Canary Islands, calling for Shell to "Stop Drilling. Start Paying." Read more here.According to Greenpeace, Shell, late on Friday, Feb 3, hit the…

The heads of NATO and the European Commission flew on Friday to a North Sea platform bigger than the Eiffel Tower in a visit underlining Norway's importance for gas supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The Troll A platform extracts gas from Norway's biggest gas field. After a drop in Russian flows, the Nordic country last year became the largest gas supplier to the EU.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will discuss the protection of infrastructure and gas supplies to Europe with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere…

Russia has in recent months tried to gain intelligence to sabotage critical infrastructure in the Dutch part of the North Sea, Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said on Monday.A Russian ship has been detected at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea as it tried to map out energy infrastructure, MIVD head General Jan Swillens said at a news conference.The vessel was escorted out of the North Sea by Dutch marine and coast guard ships before any sabotage effort could become successful…

Oslo-listed subsea services provider Reach Subsea said Wednesday it had won a decommissioning contract in the North Sea. The contract is with an undisclosed client, and represents around 40 project days for execution in Q1 2023. Reach Subsea will use the Olympic Delta vessel for the project. Financial details were not disclosed.Olympic Delta is a subsea vessel equipped for light IMR and survey work for both the oil and gas and renewables sectors.Reach Subsea has an existing cooperation with Olympic Subsea for Olympic Delta, and the parties have agreed to extend the cooperation for the whole of 2023. Currently, the extended cooperation comprises an additional 150 days of firm work for the two ROVs currently mobilized on the vessel.