Fred Olsen Windcarrier is temporarily relocating one of its vessels to the Asia Pacific region to support Siemens Gamesa on an offshore wind turbine installation campaign.
Fred Olsen Windcarrier has temporarily mobilised a second installation vessel, Bold Tern, to the region.
In 2018, Fred Olsen Windcarrier was awarded a contract with Siemens Gamesa for the transport and installation of wind turbines on the 640MW Yunlin offshore wind farm in Taiwanese waters using the installation vessel Brave Tern.
Last month Brave Term completed the first installation of the 80 8MW Siemens Gamesa turbines at Yunlin.
Fred Olsen Windcarrier and Siemens Gamesa have now signed an amendment extending the charter period which will allow Brave Tern to complete the Yunlin project in a continuous campaign, which “materially improves” the contractor’s backlog for 2021.
Bold Tern will depart Europe in summer 2021 to undergo the planned crane upgrade and subsequently fulfil Fred Olsen Windcarrier’s other contract obligations for the 2022 season in the Asia Pacific region.
Fred Olsen Windcarrier’s third wind turbine installation vessel, Blue Tern, will continue to secure “timely execution” of the Moray East project in the UK, which up to this point has been using Bold Tern for turbine installation.
Siemens Gamesa project execution commercial head Henning Lang said: “We appreciate FOWIC’s effort to work closely with us to support our Taiwan pipeline.
“We have a long history with FOWIC and this is one of many examples where they have proven to be a trusted service provider.”
This latest vessel rotation is the fourth time in five years where Fred Olsen Windcarrier, on short notice has been able to support its clients with additional installation capacity, it said.