I don’t know about Maersk.
I recall hearing that Mass Maritime Academy is providing Global Wind safety training.
I’ve heard that Windserve, a US company with US crews and vessels, operating at Block Island sent their crews to Europe for training.
If I were a US offshore wind vessel service company. I would buy half of one of the European vessel companies right now and start sending my American crews to Europe, Taiwan, or wherever, for training.
Good idea, but there are no real US Offshore Service Vessel in existence yet.
A couple of CTVs at Block Island only.
The Installation vessel that has been ordered iat Keppel AMFELS is still years away from operation.
It is a bit like the “Chicken and the egg. Which came first?”.
There have to be some wind farms to service before anybody will build the necessary service vessels.
How to construct the wind farms before you have the Installation vessels to do the job?
Simple; you use foreign vessels initially to install the wind mills, lay the cables and train local people by OJT.
Or you wait until the US vessels have been built, then build the wind farms.
Probably the best way to go is to allow some existing foreign flag vessels to be reflagged US.
We don’t need foreign expertise or ships to build the wind farms. Just because we’re late to the game, doesn’t mean we don’t have the technology or engineering expertise to build these ships. As I said before, I’m confident that once these projects get confirmed someone in the US will build them. There’s just too much money to leave it on the table and not go for it. After the first US vessel is built there’s going to be a lot more interest in getting these vessels and the servicing vessels built and the wind farms are going to grow in number. The US has built many complex vehicles before. a WTIV is just not as complex as you want it to be, especially for a country that has put people into space and walked on the moon, which notably no other country has been able to do.
Hope Equinor has a good exit plan this time, because they got royally fucked last time they tried to make money in USA.
sheesh people…read the article
windfarm installation and supply vessels are going to need to be Jones Act qualified by Act of Congress so enough discussing using foreign vessels and crews for work in the USA
No it is not rocket science, but it is a long time since any US yard built a J/U Rig or a Drillship. Last J/U Drilling rig built in the US for a US company was the Rowan EXL IV in 2011 (at Keppel AmFELS, the same yard that will build the first J/U Installation vessel)
PS> They built rigs for Mexico until 2016.
Last::Uxpanapa for Perforadora Central. KFELS-B-Class Jack-Up, delivered 14-Jul-2016. Still active.
The last time the Space Shuttle was launched was in 2011.
First time an American went to the ISS directly from US soil thereafter was in May 2020 on a commercially owned and operated rocket developed by SpaceX (Owned by an S.African migrant)
Last time an American went to the moon was in 1972 (49 years ago)
How long can you live on past glory??
Yes that is a good idea, but those on the market for sale would be of the earliest built and not able to handle the large new foundations, turbines and blades.
Maybe letting foreign companies set up US subsidiaries and re-register some of their ships under US flag, with US crews and a few foreign “advisors” initially?
The companies could “pre-train” offshore and onshore key personnel by placing them on working vessels outside US for a period of time.
PS> Not talking only about Installation vessels, by cable layers and SOVs as well.
They would still need a Jones Act waver though.
They are building one here already.
Yes one Installation vessel that will be completed end 2023, if no delays occure.
But if all the projects presently in different stages of planning will materialize, more then one will be needed.
And it is not only WTIVs that is needed for a rapidly expanding industry. It is also functioning cable layers, trenchers and stone dumpers etc.
Once the windmills are in place they are going to need servicing. If close to shore this can be done with CTVs that bring technicians out from shore for the day and back in the evening.
But when the wind farms gets further from shore bases and more tools and parts are needed, this is not enough.
SOVs with W2W facilities and living quarters for service personnel that can stay in the field for extended periods quickly becomes a necessity.
This CAN be re-purposed MPSVs or other vessels used in the oil & gas industry, but purpose built vessels are preferred.
As the windmills gets older it becomes necessary to replace blades, or even whole nacelles, which requires large cranes able to lift at heights that is not matched in the Offshore Oil & Gas field.
Yes all these types of vessels can be built at US yards once there are a “critical mass” of wind farms to interest investors. But how are you going to get there??
guess what Goombah…the USA is there now! With the certainty that foreign interlopers will not be influencing the market, the money is available today…that is what the article stated but you obviously did not read it. I am asking you again to STFU and allow the USA to win one for once. Norwegian companies have taken advantage of too many loopholes to intrude in the US market for too many years with foreign built vessels and foreign personnel…thankfully the time they can do that is coming to an end and I am thrilled!
maybe now with the Congress waking up and a new Administration here, all the foreign companies taking work from Americans in the GoM will be run out on a rail! Oh, wouldn’t that be wuverly.
What a bargain…I wished Elon Musk would buy these surplus drillships to mine for seafloor nodules.
I thought you were getting tired of winning??
Does that principle apply to American owned rigs and boats and Americans working in the oilfields outside US waters/EEZ?
You certainly have a way with words.
you mean where the owners hire local nationals to crew them?
This was a study from a few years back evaluating actual estimate packages from a couple US yards:
Installation methodologies and timelines were synthesized to define the functional requirements of the WTIV and feeder barge. Based on the requirements, a WTIV with a main crane capacity of 1500te (1645 ST) and a beam of 42m (138 ft.) was designed. Estimating packages were prepared and submitted to U.S. shipyards resulting in an average estimated cost of $222 million and a build time of 34 months.
Likewise, a feeder barge with a variable load capacity of 3400te (3740 ST) and a beam of 38m (125 ft.) was designed to support a field-bound WTIV. Estimating packages were prepared and submitted to U.S. shipyards resulting in an average estimated cost of $87 million and a build time of 25 months.
A basic financial model was created to track cash flows for a vessel owner over the life of the unit.
To achieve a reasonable combination of day rates ($220,000) and internal rate of return (10%), at least 10 years of firm work is required for the WTIV. For the feeder barge, approximately 16 years of work at a day rate of $85,000 is required to generate an internal rate of return of 10%.
I assume (but do not know) that the day-rate used for the economics seems high.
Yeah, but I don’t trust the author of the article to read the fine print and get the article righ.
Customs, and the USCG have done nothing but screw us with unfavorable interpretations and a flood of unnecessary Jones Act waivers and OCS work visas in the oil patch.
Why would anyone expect them to do differently for offshore wind?
Most of the American owned Drilling rigs I have been on, or inspected, has had a mixed crew. Senior positions usually filled by Expats of different nationalities (some Americans) while junior crews are mostly locals from wherever they work (except in the Middle East) Only Semi-subs and Drillships bound for GoM that I have attended have had all American crews.
DLBs and Crane barges usually have the same mix, but the Riggers are usually Ibans no matter where they operate.
OSVs may be manned by Expat Master and local (or Pinoy) Officers and crews, That varies with where they work and what type of vessel they are.
PS> I have met the odd American Master on American and Singapore owned OSVs in the last few years of my working life, but fairly seldom.
As for Norwegian owned vessels operating in the GoM they are mostly CSVs or MPSVs and Seismic vessels. They would mostly be flying NIS, EU country or FOC flag.
The manning would be fairly international, maybe with some Norwegians in key positions, but not always.
Since that type of vessels operate all over the world and sometime on short contracts, they don’t change crew for every new area of operation.
That same pattern applies to most Offshore vessels, regardless of who owns, operates, or have the crewing management and wherever the work.
There are some regulars here who have work on vessels under different flags, ownership/management and in different parts of the world that can confirm this.
well this time it appears they are going to do the right thing for once…
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Expressly Applies Jones Act to Offshore Wind Projects in U.S. Waters
February 2, 2021
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has for the first time expressly found that the Jones Act applies to offshore wind projects on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, reports Holland & Knight law firm.
The ruling was contained in a January 27 letter from Lisa L. Burley, chief attorney for the Cargo Security, Carriers and Restricted Merchandise Branch of the CBP’s Office of International Trade, Regulations and Rulings, in response to an initial request from a law firm representing Great Lake Dredge and Dock to the CBP from nearly a year ago.
The ruling expressly found that the Jones Act applies to transportation of merchandise from a U.S. port to a location on the outer continental shelf for the purpose of the development and production of wind energy.
The CBP’s ruling is said to be the first one to be issued following the recent amendment to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) contained in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021, which was passed in early January. A key provision of the NDAA, Section 9503, affirms that the OCSLA, which governs offshore energy activities in federal waters, applies to offshore wind and other renewable energy, including its application of the Jones Act.
According to Holland & Knight, the CBP ruling ends a long-standing ambiguity over whether OCSLA extended the Jones Act to installations and other devices attached to outer continental shelf for the purpose of exploring for, developing or producing non-mineral energy resources, such as offshore wind.
A number of other offshore wind-related ruling requests submitted prior to the NDAA remain pending, and it is anticipated that CBP will continue processing those pending ruling requests in the coming weeks, the law firm says.
“With a major jurisdictional ambiguity addressed, CBP, developers and contractors can proceed to the necessary work of planning and seeking interpretive rulings on important, and in some cases novel, operational questions associated with offshore wind construction and operations,” Holland & Knight wrote in a blog post discussing the ruling.
“With the Biden Administration’s emphasis on promoting offshore wind and President Joe Biden’s recent reiteration of the Jones Act’s applicability to offshore renewable energy projects following the signing of the NDAA, CBP should be well positioned to work with the offshore wind industry in its efforts to plan, construct and operate the numerous U.S. offshore wind projects that are expected to be built in the upcoming years.”
Last week, President Biden confirmed his administration’s support of the Jones Act and its role in developing the nation’s offshore renewables sector in his “Buy American” executive order.
Great Lake Dredge and Dock is currently in the early phases of building a Jones Act-compliant rock installation vessel to support offshore wind development in U.S. waters. The vessel is planned for deliver in 2024 to coincide with major offshore wind construction projects on the U.S. East Coast.
I doubt this will be enough to make much of a blip on the radar screen covering the US flagged maritime industry however ANY movement by our government to help the industry is something to be celebrated and hope reemerges that it is just maybe going to come out of the vegetative state it has it has been existing in now for far too many decades! Now onto foreign vessels working in the GoM with foreign crews, energy exports from US ports going out exclusively on foreign ships and maybe ending foreign flagged shuttle tankers coming and going from US refineries for what seems like forever. These are all low hanging fruit which could be a watershed to create jobs which will require ZERO Federal goverment funding or subsidy.
LET’S DO THIS JOE!
I agree with you and cheer your optimism.
However, the current ruling apparently only relates to the “transportation of merchandise”. Nothing to stop the current loading of wind turbines that is taking place in Halifax. Nothing to prevent foreign vessels from installing the wind turbines that are transported to the site on US barges.
Nothing to prevent the existing foreign crew (because there are supposedly no qualified Americans) on all the foreign vessels working under waivers in the US oil patch. Given that Biden hates oil drilling so much, the first thing he should do to slow it down is stop handing out waivers to all these foreign vessels and crews.
I remain skeptical about keeping foreign vessels and foreign crews out of offshore wind.
this topic really needs more discussion here and I am posting this article to get to going again
us American mariners as a community MUST lobby the Congress and Administration that even if installation vessels not be required to be US built, that they be US manned and operated! We obviously lost this battle in the GoM but we do not need to lose it again with offshore wind! Our very future is at risk here!
I also am once again asking our resident Norwegian irritant to stay out of this and not comment since you do not have standing in this issue.
