Hywind Tampen: Equinor Hires One More SOV, Vallourec Delivers Parts to Aker

A few days after Simon Møkster Shipping announced its vessel Stril Server was chartered for the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm in Norway, Island Offshore and Vallourec revealed their contracts for the project.

Island Offshore has been contracted for service operation vessel (SOV) services, with its walk-to-work vessel Island Diligence set to commence operations under the contract during the second quarter of 2022, at the same time Stril Server will start providing the same services for the Norwegian floating wind project.

Meanwhile, Vallourec supplied 340 tonnes of seamless hot formed hollow sections for the project under a contract with Aker Solutions – the provider of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for Equinor’s floating wind farm.

Aker Solutions needed thirteen different pipe sizes for the various boat landings and service decks they were building, and we were able to meet that demand”, said Stephan Scherf, Sales Manager of Global On- and Offshore Construction Projects. “We had a good history of working together that established a foundation of trust at the outset”. 

Developed by Equinor together with its Snorre and Gullfaks partners, the 88 MW Hywind Tampen floating wind farm will be the first of its kind to power oil & gas platforms.

Component fabrication works for the floating wind farm are already underway. In April, Aker Solutions reported that it had completed the first part of the construction of the concrete foundations at its yard in Stord, Norway.

The floating foundations will carry eleven Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines, expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual power needs on the five platforms Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C in the Norwegian North Sea and reduce emissions from the Gullfaks and Snorre fields by more than 200,000 tonnes per year, once operational in 2022.