Many countries have implemented ambitious plans to increase their sustainable energy resources and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. One of the more common renewable energy solutions is the development of offshore wind farms which have become a feature along the coasts of many countries, particularly in Western Europe.
While the construction of these wind farms offshore is a challenging engineering task, once built they also have to be regularly maintained. An industry providing specialist support vessels for offshore wind turbine farms has grown up in recent years. However, at present, there is no tailor-made standard maintenance service contract available for this niche market. BIMCO’s SUPPLYTIME agreement is often used by support vessel operators but needs to be heavily amended to suit their particular needs.
BIMCO has been approached during the past two years by a number of offshore support vessel operators seeking a suitable standard contract for their vessels. Following market research by the Secretariat into the likely level of demand for a purpose-made standard contract which provided very positive feedback, it has been agreed that this would be a very worthwhile project to pursue.
The new contract for offshore wind farm maintenance service vessels will be developed with the assistance of operators and clients from the wind farm industry as well as broking and P&I expertise. Drafting work is due to begin in September and it is hoped to present a first draft of the contract to the Documentary Committee in November.
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Source: bimco, September 01, 2011