Wanted: Offshore Terminal Bremerhaven Operator

German Federal Land of Bremen has initiated a tender procedure to find an operator for the Offshore Terminal Bremerhaven (OTB).

“This is a further important step towards realisation of our new heavy-lift terminal for the wind energy sector,” says Martin Günthner, Bremen’s Senator for Economic Affairs and Ports. The planned facility will have an annual handling capacity of up to 160 wind turbines and foundation elements.

A Europe-wide competitive tender has to be conducted before the contract can be awarded to the operator. The contract will take the form of a service concession and, according to the current plans, will be awarded in Q4 2015.

Each bidder and each member of a bidding consortium will be obliged to furnish proof of its economic and financial efficiency. This also includes its technical capabilities. They are obliged to present reference projects from the preceding three financial years which are similar to the operation of OTB (terminal operation, on-shore transhipment and/or logistics services for wind farm components or heavy-lift goods). Candidates also have to submit a rough concept for the operation of OTB and its integration in Bremerhaven’s wind energy cluster.

A separate tender has to be conducted for the construction of the OTB infrastructure. Assuming that both tenders and the planning approval procedures all go off smoothly, the new terminal facility can be inaugurated in 2018.

The OTB is to be operated all year round. The quay on the right bank of the Weser in the south of Bremerhaven will be approx. 500 metres long and have two to three berths for jack-up vessels. The OTB will have a gross operating area of approx. 25 hectares and the heavy-lift area on the quay will have a depth of approx. 35 metres.

Once the infrastructure for the loading facility has been completed, it will be handed over to the operator, who is then responsible for the construction or procurement of the required suprastructure. Operation of the OTB will be at the operator’s own expense and risk. The operator will be obliged to pay a fee to the Federal Land of Bremen for use of the Offshore Terminal. The operating contract is expected to have a term of 30 years.