Category Archives: Offshore

Australia is about to get its first offshore wind farms. The three projects will consist of two floating wind farms and one fixed-bottom wind farm, with a total installed capacity of 4.3 gigawatts.

Australias Energy Estate and Spain-headquartered BlueFloat Energy, which are partnered to develop offshore wind projects in Australia and New Zealand, are developing these three projects.

The floating wind farms will be installed off the coast of Australias New South Wales, and the bottom-fixed wind farm will sit off the Victoria coast.

BlueFloat Energy, which develops offshore wind projects, announced the details of the three offshore wind farms:

Hunter Coast Offshore Wind Project:A 1.4 GW project that will use floating wind technology and will be located off the coast south of Newcastle in the Hunter Coast region of NSW. This project will support the revitalization of the Hunter region as it transitions from coal-fired power. It will supply existing large energy users such as Tomagos aluminium smelter as well as the emerging loads such as green hydrogen being promoted by the Hunter Hydrogen Hub.

Wollongong Offshore Wind Project: A 1.6 GW project that will also use floating wind technology and will be located across two sites off the coast from Wollongong in the Illawarra region of NSW. This large-scale floating wind project will support the existing industrial ecosystem in the Illawarra and facilitate the growth of new industries in the region, including green hydrogen for export and domestic markets such as mobility.

Greater Gippsland Offshore Wind Project:A 1.3 GW project that will use bottom-fixed technology and will be located off the coast of the Gippsland region of Victoria, in the Bass Strait. This large-scale offshore wind project builds on the momentum for an accelerated retirement of brown coal projects in the La Trobe Valley and is intended to complement the existing and planned transmission infrastructure in Gippsland.

Nick Sankey, BlueFloat Energys country manager in Australia, said:

The timing of our announcement comes hot on the heels of Australias federal government passing legislation that provides a framework for developing offshore wind projects here. This is a pivotal step as the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021 establishes a regulatory scaffold to enable the construction, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of offshore electricity infrastructure.

The two companies did not indicate a timeline for the three offshore wind projects.

Read more: Western Australia plans to build worlds largest clean energy hub

Photo: Emiliano Arano/BlueFloat Energy

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Continue reading here:

Australia has no offshore wind power, but thats about to change - Electrek.co

Offshore Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) got its start in India. In the beginning, it was largely done as an in-house process. Although a function like customer service might be outsourced to an Indian call centre, the ownership and management of the function remained the same as the parent company. However, it showed how BPO to India could work for the first time. Although there were hiccups, some call centres were the source of communication complaints; they proved that it was possible to successfully offshore an entire service and make significant savings, largely through reductions in the wage bill.

The industry was, initially, firmly in the domain of major multinationals. While the savings were there, the set-up costs of establishing a facility, recruiting staff, and providing ongoing supervision and management meant the option was out of the reach of many businesses. In the early days of offshore BPO giants like GE and AmEx led the way, says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning mid-sized BPO provider. However, it was not long before local entrepreneurs had seen the opportunity. With experienced staff, at all levels, from the captive (in-house) BPO operations, third-party outsourcing providers emerged. It opened the possibilities of BPO in India to another group of businesses, those major multinational and national businesses that were not large enough to establish their own offshore operation. Now they, too, could outsource things like customer service, leaving them free to focus on their core business. However, this also opened the floodgates. With outsourcing now offered as a practical solution for almost every business, plenty of other countries realised their economy could also benefit from providing offshore BPO services, says Ellspermann.

This next phase has been marked by the outsourcing sector maturing. The sector is now open to almost anyone, no longer the province of just a few providers and early innovators. With experienced workers available, and plenty of jurisdictions keen to see the benefits that come from investment in the sector, there are few barriers to entry for new BPOs. The result has been increased competition for providers and increased choice for clients who are no longer restricted to BPO in India. It has arguably resulted in better services for everyone; operators have to keep prices competitive but must also ensure their services stand out.

There are now several countries that have a significant BPO sector. Perhaps the best example is the Philippines. The BPO industry there grew from almost nothing to the world's second largest within just 20 years. The country has a high level of English fluency, excellent education standards, and strong cultural links with the US, allowing Filipino call agents to converse easily and build rapport, explains Ellspermann. It means that while India has continued to dominate in areas like ITO and KPO, more companies now choose the Philippines for their call centre and back-office outsourcing requirements. India may have created the modern outsourcing industry and dominated it for many decades. Still, BPO to India is no longer the only option open to businesses from around the world.

Disclaimer: This is a company press release. No HT journalist is involved in creation of this content.

Originally posted here:

BPO India: The Offshore Outsourcing Industry - Hindustan Times

Mayflower Wind ratifies new fund with SouthCoast Community Foundation.

The recently announced state award to Mayflower Wind to supply Massachusetts with offshore wind energy means a significant commitment to local workforce and economic development through their newly created fund with the SouthCoast Community Foundation.

Over the next ten years, the Mayflower Fund will receive a total of $27 million toward inclusive, equitable, and diverse employment, training, and supply chain opportunities related to the offshore wind industry in the Southeastern Massachusetts region.

The benefits for this region from offshore wind are significant. This is an opportunity for the South Coast to flourish, and building a workforce that is local, talented, and ready to do this work, is key, stated John Vasconcellos, SouthCoast Community Foundation President and CEO. We are thrilled to be a partner to Mayflower Wind, providing that much-needed link into the communities that Foundations provide.

We look forward to delving into the process to create an informed and comprehensive assessment of the regions needs, which begins with meeting with key stakeholders and doing a lot of listening.

The Mayflower Fund economic development activities and investments, underpinned by diversity, equity, and inclusion principles, will span the SouthCoast Community Foundation service area, including Greater New Bedford, Greater Fall River, Southern Plymouth County, and in total 41 cities and towns across four counties of Southeastern Massachusetts.

The Fund has two focus areas. The workforce, education, and training component will provide resources for local, nonprofit educational institutions such as vocational and technical schools and community colleges to create paid training, internship, and apprenticeship programs to support workforce development.

The supply chain component will work with municipal officials, state economic development authorities and departments, the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office, and other key stakeholders to identify and fund nonprofit-based projects, programs, and initiatives that build employment and economic development opportunities on the South Coast that are related to the Offshore Wind industry.

The Community Foundation will manage it with input from key industry stakeholders, including state and municipal development authorities, labor groups, academic institutions, business associations, and diversity, equity, and inclusion NGOs, among others.

The offshore wind industry has the potential to provide significant economic and environmental benefits to the people and businesses across the South Coast, said Michael Brown, CEO, Mayflower Wind. But in order to truly succeed we need strong partnerships with organizations such as the SouthCoast Community Foundation, who truly understand the needs of the community, to ensure we are fostering a just transition toward a sustainable energy future.

The SouthCoast Community Foundation is a nonprofit serving the communities of Southeastern Massachusetts through philanthropy. The Community Foundation mission is to mobilize philanthropy by matching donors and resources with community needs for the benefit of the region. Since 1995, the organization has distributed over $50 million from more than 200 funds to humanitarian, educational, and cultural organizations in the region. For more information, visit http://www.southcoastcf.org

View post:

South Coast to benefit from $27 Million ten-year commitment toward offshore wind workforce - newbedfordguide.com

12/21/2021

For the past two years, Maersk Drilling has spearheaded an innovative effort to develop a first-of-a-kind product to support digitalization of offshore drilling processes. The solution, known as RigFlow, has now been segregated into the digitally focused company named Horizon56 A/S to drive further development and commercialization. Horizon56 has been founded as a fully-owned Maersk Drilling subsidiary, with the ambition over time to attract strategic investors to further develop the company and its products and services.

The RigFlow solution standardizes and digitalizes the core workflows involved in the well construction process within offshore drilling operations, including real-time exchange of information between energy companies onshore planning units, the offshore drilling operations teams operating the rig, and the service companies supporting the operations. Other benefits of RigFlow include a convenient and user-friendly solution for providing digitalized drilling instructions, as well as automated reporting of data and insights to support quicker and deeper analysis of drilling operations.

From our dialogues with global oil and gas operators we see that the timing for the RigFlow offering fits well with market trends, and we expect global demand to build over the years to come. Were thrilled to be part of driving industry digitalization forward, and our product roadmap includes additional exciting solutions that will increase the value creation for operators and contractors even further, says Esben Thorup, the Managing Director of Horizon56 who previously led the development of RigFlow within Maersk Drilling.

Originally called Drilling Process Platform (DPP), RigFlow has been scoped and developed by Maersk Drillings Innovation team from early ideation and validation in 2019. Following extensive operational and market research, the solution has been designed, tested, and now deployed across several Maersk Drilling rigs. Scoping and development have been performed in collaboration with digital leaders in the oil and gas sector, including Aker BP and Equinor.

This is a natural step for the RigFlow solution and team. Horizon56 will become the first digital company that solely focuses on creating an industry-leading solution for offshore, and by doing so we ensure that it has the necessary agility to operate and quickly adapt to market trends, as well as enabling the team to independently engage with the market in the pursuit of customers, partnerships, and investors. Im proud to be able to present this result of our continuous innovation efforts and Smarter Drilling for Better Value strategy, and I look forward to the journey ahead, says Marika Reis, Chief Innovation Officer, Maersk Drilling.

The RigFlow solution is a testament to our desire to push the boundaries of the offshore drilling industry. The positive operational impact from RigFlow that we have seen so far is great, supporting more competitive energy production with an overall lower carbon footprint. This remains critical for us and our customers and Im sure that were still only scratching the surface of what can be achieved through digital solutions. I look forward to the continued digitalization of our operations and of the industry at large, and RigFlow will be an important part of that journey, says Morten Kelstrup, Chief Operating Officer, Maersk Drilling.

See more here:

Maersk Drilling launches Horizon56 to drive offshore digitalization - WorldOil

Offshore construction is underway on a self-aligning, floating wind power prototype called PivotBuoy, designed for downwind turbines that aims to achieve substantial weight reductions compared with other widely used platforms and turbines.

The laying of gravity-based structure (GBS) foundations, comprising three reinforced concrete blocks, has just been completed 2km off the coast of Gran Canaria in Spains Canary Islands.

The 225kW PivotBuoy prototype project is led by patent owner Barcelona-based startup, X1 Wind. The company enjoys the support of eight partners including utility EDPs research arm EDP New, certification body DNV GL and regional consortium Plocan.

Installation of the actual PivotBuoy floating structure and turbine is imminent, pending a clear window of opportunity for weather and sea conditions for installing the umbilical cable and towing the platform to its site, X1 Wind told Windpower Monthly.

In October 2021, a Vestas 225kW V29 nacelle was mounted on the PivotBuoy structure on the neighbouring island of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, after the work was set back by the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been erupting between September and December this year.

The floating platform swivels on its single mooring point, constituting one of the three corners of its triangular structure. As with a weathervane, the structure swivels on that axis in the water, self-aligning passively with the wind, thus eliminating the motorised and expensive active orientation, or yaw systems, of conventional turbines.

The prototypes oblique pyramid structure means that the nacelles main steel support is inclined and rests on two supporting legs either side, as with a painters easel. This makes the structure more efficient in load transmission, according to the company.

While other floating prototypes are under developmentincluding weather-vaning systems X1 Wind claims that the PivotBuoys combination of technologies make its system unique.

The single-point swivelling mooring system is connected to the foundations by vertical tensioned tendons. The tension leg platform (TLP) system keeps motions on the structure to a minimum, facilitating maintenance and reducing fatigue in the power cable. It also enables the platform to be anchored at depths of over 500m, X1 Wind claims.

X1 Wind hopes to achieve substantial weight reductions compared with other existing spar and semi-submersible offshore platforms and towers.

The prototype forms part of the Canary Islands Plocan initiative, comprising three offshore test sites that aim to test and demonstrate up to 300MW of offshore prototypes and precommercial solutions by 2025.

The EUs Horizon programme awarded a 4 million grant to the PivotBuoy project in March 2019. The project won a further 2.5m European Innovation Council (EIC) accelerator grant in June 2021 to develop the design and certify the full-scale unit of the platform.

PivotBuoy is designed for downwind turbines, meaning the rotor hub points away from the wind, as opposed to mainstream upwind turbines, which face the wind.

With winds blowing from behind, any blade bending will be away from the tower. This avoids costs typical for upwind turbines, such as pre-bending and reinforcing blades to prevent collision with the turbine tower.

This becomes a critical saving when scaling up to large 15MW-plus rotors, according to X1 Wind.

Modelling on the prototype at Germanys Fraunhofer institute has demonstrated the pyramid structure to reduce wake and shadow interferences compared with other downwind turbines using conventional towers.

The so-called X30 unit, with a 30-metre hub height, is the precursor to a 5-6MW prototype, called the X90, which will stand at 90 metres. The third iteration will be a 12-15MW version, the X140, at 140 metres tall.

In the near term, X1 Wind has a preference for dedicated downwind turbine manufacturers.However, the company is also in contact with upwind turbine OEMs as it gears up to develop its full-scale pilots.

See the original post here:

X1 Wind's downwind self-aligning floating offshore wind system aims to reduce weight and costs - Windpower Monthly

Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator Litgrid is working with Japans Tepco Power Grid on a feasibility study to assess technical and economic alternatives for offshore wind integration off Lithuania.

The study will take into account the objectives of the National Energy Independence Strategy, which states that by 2050, 80% of Lithuania's energy demand will have to produced from non-polluting resources with 100% of the total electricity consumption in the country met by locally produced electricity.

Development of renewable energy sources, with strong focus on the development of offshore wind, is envisaged as one of the key measures to achieve these objectives.

In 2023, Lithuania plans to announce the auction for the integration of the first 700MW of offshore wind into the Lithuanian electricity system.

The overall offshore wind potential in the territorial waters of Lithuania is up to 3.5GW.

In order for the offshore wind integration to take place in a technologically advanced and cost-effective way, it is necessary to evaluate the possible different configurations of the grid, technical parameters, reliability of the system, the newly emerging market opportunities, plus socio-economic benefits of such projects.

Litgrid, together with Tepco, will focus on these during the preparation of the study.

The main conclusions of the study are planned to be published in the spring of 2022.

This is the second study that is being prepared by Litgrid together with Tepco.

Earlier in 2021 Tepco, together with Baltic operators, evaluated the recommendations and described the minimum requirements for generating electricity from renewable sources.

View post:

Litgrid starts offshore wind integration study - reNEWS

A Chevron gas station sign is seen in Del Mar, California, April 25, 2013. Chevron will report earnings on April 26. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

PARAMARIBO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A unit of U.S. oil producer Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Friday transferred one-third of its 60%-equity interest in an offshore Suriname block for which it has a production sharing agreement to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Suriname's state oil company said.

Paradise Oil Company, a subsidiary of Suriname's state-run Staatsolie, retains its 40% stake in the Block 5 venture as a non-executive partner, according to the farmout contract.

"Staatsolie welcomes the participation of a reputable party like Shell in Block 5. The farmout endorses the great interest there is in the offshore area of Suriname," the company said in a release.

Staatsolie and Chevron signed a production sharing contract in October for Block 5, which covers an area of 2,235 square kilometers. The deal marked the first time that Staatsolie will participate as a partner in offshore activities. read more

Register

Reporting by Ank Kuipers, writing by Marianna Parraga

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Visit link:

Chevron agrees to transfer part of offshore Suriname field to Shell - Reuters

Offshore staff

OSLO, Norway If no significant discoveries emerge over the next 10 days, 2021 will be the thinnest year for oil and gas discoveries since 1946, according to Rystad Energy.

By the end of November, globally discovered volumes were an estimated 4.7 Bboe, the consultant calculates, way down on the 12.5 Bboe proven in 2020, with no giant new finds reported.

Of this years intake, liquids comprised 66% of total finds, with the seven new discoveries announced last November totalling around 219 MMboe.

Palzor Shenga, vice president of upstream research at Rystad, said: Although some of the highly ranked prospects are scheduled to be drilled before the end of the year, even a substantial discovery may not be able to contribute towards 2021 discovered volumes as these wells may not be completed in this calendar year.

Last months largest discovery was Lukoils 75-MMbboe recoverable Yoti West offshore Mexico. But these volumes alone are not sufficient for a commercial development, Rystad said, so further discoveries of a comparable scale would be needed to form the basis of a development concept.

Other wells in the Mexican sector are due to be drilled in blocks offered in various bid rounds, many involving leading IOCs.

Elsewhere, PTTEPs Nangka-1 was the companys second success gas find on block SK 417 offshore Sarawak, while Norway continues to deliver small-to-mid-size finds that can be developed through existing infrastructure.

12/21/2021

See more here:

Discovered offshore volumes tailing off globally, consultant finds - Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine

A 40-pound monkfish was reeled in by anangleron board the Golden Eagle's offshore wreck trip Saturday in New Jersey.

It was definitely one of the highlight catches of the weekend. The fish may be a little scary-looking, but it sure eats well,hence its "poor man's lobster"moniker.

The Golden Eagle was fishing the deepwater wrecks for sea bass, which is the best fishing at the moment, as far catching the most keeper fish for the dinner table goes.Unfortunately, the season only has about 10 days left to it before it closes on Dec. 31.

Capt. Rich Falcone said they had a boat limit on the sea bass and were releasing fish early. They caught quite a few porgies, as much as they wanted, a dozen weakfish and some blues.

The Jamaica was also offshore fishing Saturday.Capt. Howard Bogan Jr. said they bailed the sea bassfrom the moment they dropped the anchor and blew the horn to begin fishing. The porgies were there for taking, too.The big fish on the boat was a 7-pound hake.

The inshore fishing is mainly the die-hard tog fishermen, searching for a blackfish.

Out of the two days he sailed this past weekend,Capt. Matt Sosnowski on the Big Mohawksaid Saturday was the better day. He said theyhad good life right off the bat with some decent-size keepers coming up around the boat.

The fishingslowed down later in the day but those thatcast their bait aroundwere able to pluck some more off the rocks. Sunday was fair, but breezy on the water. He did have a faremake a limit catch, but overall anglers had to work harder for the bites.

There are still some anglers engaged in the striped bass fishery. Most of the fish in the area are schooliesand hitting off thesouthern Ocean County (New Jersey) beaches. According to Fisherman's Headquarters in Ship Bottom, there was also some pretty goodjig fishing on the few small boats that fishedthe north end of the Long Beach Island coast.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.

Continued here:

40-pound monkfish tops catches on the offshore sea bass trips in New Jersey - USA TODAY

As renewable energy continues to comprise a larger share of the US power mix, offshore wind remains the next frontier of the US green energy boom. Today, the US hosts only one operational commercial offshore wind farm, the five-turbine, 30-MW Block Island Wind Farm. However, a robust pipeline of projects is under development with leases secured, development well underway, and construction targeted for 20222024. By some observers analysis, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, a branch of the US Department of the Interior) is currently reviewing the construction and operation plans of nine more projects, is expected to complete another six by 2025, and has announced plans to hold lease auctions for up to seven new sites by 2025. The Biden administration has established a goal of 30 GW of US-based offshore wind power by 2030, and issued an executive order targeted a goal of permitting at least 25 GW by 2025.

Despite such tailwinds, obstacles abound. Although development and permitting plans for the 800 MW Vineyard Wind Farm (which was approved by regulators in 2021 and broke ground in November) are viewed by many in the industry as blueprints for solving some of the community, permitting, and technical challenges that other projects will face, US developers still will have to contend with a variety of challenges: local opposition from certain communities and fishing groups, the need for interconnection and transmission upgrades, and the usual array of commercial, technical, legal, and financial hurdles that accompany billion-dollar infrastructure projects, particularly those that involve installation of towers the size of a Manhattan skyscraper at sea via specially designedand, thus far, European-ownedvessels. Many of these challenges will be overcome via strategies informed by successes in Europes more developed market.

However, a unique obstacle to US development for which US developers will not be able to look to lessons learned in Europe is with respect to the Jones Acta suite of US maritime laws and decisions that requires vessels used in certain aspects of coastwise trade (transportation of people, merchandise, and industrial activities within US territorial waters) be US-built, US-flagged, US-citizen-owned, and US-citizen-operated. Because offshore wind turbines require installation via specially built self-elevating and self-propelled wind-turbine installation vessels (WTIV)and because, to date, such vessels only exist in foreign waters and with foreign crewsmany see the Jones Act compliance as a potential bottleneck for the nascent industrys progress.

In a December 2020 US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, stakeholders described two approaches to using vessels to install offshore wind energy projects in the United States. Either approach may lead to the construction of new vessels that comply with the Jones Act. Under one approach, a Jones Act-compliant WTIV would carry components from a US port to the site and also install the turbines. A WTIV has a large deck, legs that allow the vessel to lift out of the water, and a tall crane to lift and place turbines. Stakeholders told the GAO there are currently no Jones Act-compliant vessels capable of serving as a WTIV, although Dominion Energy is building one. Under the second approach, a foreign-flag WTIV would install the turbines with components carried to the site from US ports by Jones Act-compliant feeder vessels. This was done in the case of Block Island, which is currently the only operational offshore windfarm in US territorial waters. While some potential feeder vessels exist, stakeholders said larger ones would probably need to be built to handle the large turbines developers would likely use. Port improvements will likely also be required to accommodate these feeder vessels.

Although navigation of Jones Act requirements will be a challenging prerequisite to successful US offshore wind development, opportunity abounds for market players that are able to employ one of several key strategies to differentiate themselves from the competition and overcome this uniquely stateside challenge.

Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (46 USC 883) and its attendant regulations (and subsequent decisions issued by US Customs and Border Protections, the regulatory body overseeing Jones Act interpretation) are collectively referred to as the Jones Act. At its core, the act requires that vessels engaged in activities such as transportation of merchandise and passengers, dredging, towing, and related vessel escort services and towing assistance between two points in the territorial US waters (three miles) be US-built, US-flagged, US-citizen-owned, and US-citizen-crewed.

In 2021, an amendment to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which governs matters pertaining to US waters and the seabed beneath, coupled with two US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rulings confirmed that Jones Act compliance would be a critical step in US offshore wind construction. First, the OCSLA amendment clarified that devices affixed to the seabed for the purposes of oil and gas exploration as well as developing non-mineral energy resources fall within exclusive federal jurisdiction and constitute coastwise points under the Jones Act. The CBP rulings (particularly HQ H316313, issued February 4, 2021, later affirmed to the market that although certain portions of the project construction and turbine erection process could fall outside the purview of the Jones Act and be completed using noncompliant vessels, the act would ultimately apply to offshore wind construction and operations and, therefore, require the market to carefully adapt to the Jones Acts requirements.

Of course, the most obvious solution for project sponsors is to build Jones-Act compliant WTIVs, which might be made available for charter.

Dominion Energy has done exactly that with its Charybdis, which is expected to be a $500 million, largest-of-its-kind installation vessel to be based out of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Following construction (underway since December 2020 in Texas and expected to be completed in 2023), Charybdis will be available for charter. Dominion, Orsted, and Eversource already have entered into an agreement for Charybdis to construct Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, two projects off the eastern seaboard under development by the joint venture between Orsted and Eversource, and which will deliver power to customers in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

Other market players have indicated varying levels of intention to build additional vessels, though are not as advanced as Charbydis. For example, Eneti Inc., formerly Scorpio Builders, has announced its intention to construct at least one US-constructed, Jones-Act compliant WTIV. Though not yet contracted, Eneti submitted US Securities and Exchange filings in November 2021 to initiate a $200 million public offering to fund its plans.

But with over a dozen US-based projects already having secured leases from BOEM with more in varying levels of development, demand for new vessels, both WTIVs and feeder vessels, will surely outpace supply, and the goals of market players, the federal government, and applicable states cannot be met if the lengthy financing and construction of new vessels is yet another gating item to successful turbine installation.

Another option is the use of feeder-vessels: utilizing Jones-Act compliant tugs and barges to transport turbine components, equipment and personnel to and from WTIV jack-up vessels parked and affixed to the seabed at turbine locations. This is the tactic chosen by Vineyard Wind and confirmed as in conformity with the Jones Act in the February CBP Decision. Vineyard has contracted with both US-based FOSS Maritime and the US-branch of the Belgian marine services provider DEME to transport turbine components and personnel from the projects port base of New Bedford, Conn., to the foreign-flagged and DEME-owned WTIV parked at each turbine location.

According to the February CBP decision, the WTIV in Vineyards plan is not required to be Jones Act compliant because it remains completely stationary during the installation of a given turbine, hence is not engaged in coastwise transportation, while the movement of its crane to unload components from the feeder vessels and installation on the seabed also does not constitute transportation. Similarly, the CBP decision also held that Vineyards transportation of tools, equipment, and personnel to and from the WTIVand, critically, on board the WTIV as it moved from location to locationfall outside the Jones Acts requirements because the tools and equipment do not constitute merchandise and because the crew onboard the WTIV are directly and substantially related to the operation of the vessel. Other construction activities such as grading, turbine foundation preparation, and cable laying also have been held to fall outside the scope of the Jones Act. However, in several instances based on nuanced fact sets and application Jones Act principles that may not be present in every project, companies are advised to consult experienced maritime counsel and seek rulings from CBP to clarify any open issues

Finally, it should surprise no one that since the passage of the original Jones Act in 1920, the regulatory environment has developed to allow some foreign participation in the ownership, construction, and financing of Jones Act vessels. For example, existing rules allow up to 25% foreign ownership of a Jones Act vessel and some foreign developers are seeking US partners to provide the requisite 75% Section 2 US citizenship. In addition, as an alternative to financing construction of a new vessels on the corporate balance sheet (as Dominion has done with Charybdis), the so-called leasing rule allows a US leasing company/financial institution to set up a US documentation citizen to own the vessel and time charter it on what is called a hell or high water long-term basis to a foreign person, as long as operational control of the vessel remains through a bareboat charter with an independent and qualified Section 2 US citizen. This allows the foreign time charterer to obtain use of the Jones Act vessel and to provide the financial support necessary to finance its construction.

As global demand for offshore wind farms and the green power therefrom increases, the scarcity of the specially built turbine installation vessels used to construct them is exacerbated in the United States by the Jones Act and its requirements that vessels used in coastwise tradeincluding non-mineral energy generation development and constructionbe US-owned and operated, except in limited circumstances. However, certain strategies will permit US-based project sponsors to access and utilize foreign vessels or to build new Jones Act compliant vessels to accelerate the US offshore wind industrys growth and unlock its full potential.

[View source.]

Go here to see the original:

Jones Act Compliance Strategies for US Offshore Wind Construction - JD Supra