Boskalis wins offshore wind contract

Boskalis has signed a contract with partners DONG Energy and Scottish Power Renewables for the partial construction of the West of Duddon Sands offshore windfarm in the Irish Sea. The work includes preparation of the seabed and the transport and placing of 108 wind turbine foundations. The project will be carried out by Boskalis Offshore and SMIT Marine Projects in collaboration with partner Volker Construction International.

The project includes the transport of the foundations, consisting of monopiles and transition pieces, from Aalborg in Denmark to Belfast in Northern Ireland, by SMIT’s ocean-going flat-top barges and tugs. An initial scour protection filter layer will be placed on the seabed at each location by a Boskalis fallpipe vessel, after which the monopiles and transition pieces will be transported from Belfast to the wind park where they will be installed.

Once the installation has been completed, a further scour protection layer around the piles will be laid, this time with a larger stone fraction, using the same fallpipe vessel. The combined contract value for Boskalis-SMIT amounts to approximately €70 million and the work will commence in the first quarter of 2013 and be completed mid-2014. In addition, Boskalis will carry out stone-dumping work on behalf of Seajacks for the Meerwind offshore wind park that is being developed by WindMW in the German section of the North Sea.

The project involves the placement of an erosion protection filter layer on the seabed using a fallpipe vessel after which Seajacks will install 80 wind turbine foundations. Following the installation of the 80 monopiles, the same fallpipe vessel will be used to apply further erosion protection around the foundations consisting of stones with a larger fraction size (up to 500kg each). This will provide optimal erosion protection for the monopiles arising from local wave and current conditions. Work is scheduled to start in August 2012 with completion expected in mid-2013.

Boskalis also recently received a Letter of Award from Saipem in relation to the Ichthys gas export pipeline development near Darwin, Northern Australia. The project is worth approximately Euros 200 million to Boskalis. INPEX is the main developer of the Ichthys project and Boskalis will work on behalf of Saipem (Portugal) Comércio Marítimo.

The Ichthys development revolves around the construction of a new 107cm deep-sea natural gas pipeline from the Ichthys field in the Browse Basin 880km to Darwin onshore. The pipeline will run through the Darwin harbour, requiring dredging services in the near shore area, rock installation and the construction of a landfall.

For Boskalis, the contract entails dredging an 18km pipeline trench in which the gas pipeline will be laid, a pipe-pull over a distance of approximately 3,000m and the installation of a protective layer of rock after the pipeline has been laid. A cofferdam and winch platform will be constructed at the waterline edge to build the landfall. Work is set to commence mid-2013 and is expected to be completed by mid-2015. For the pipeline trenching and landfall construction, Boskalis will deploy two large backhoe dredging vessels. The rock for the post-lay installation will be sourced from a local quarry and will be placed using side stone dumping vessels.