Wind order – the largest in ESVAGT’s history

ESVAGT is to deliver two newbuildings to service the offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. ”An important business unit to strengthen”, says Søren Nørgaard Thomsen, CEO.

For many years ESVAGT has had a targeted ambition to strengthen wind energy as a business unit and has now taken a big step forward with the contract that has been made with Siemens Wind Power in respect of two service operation vessels for the wind farms.

From December 2014 and for the next five years ESVAGT is going to be servicing the turbines in the offshore wind farm Baltic 2 from a new built service operation vessel (SOV). Baltic 2 is half way between the islands of Møn and Bornholm. From March 2015 ESVAGT is to deliver a second SOV to the farm Butendiek, which is in the North German Sector.

- The offshore wind market is an important business unit to strengthen, says Søren Nørgaard Thomsen, CEO in ESVAGT:

- We have had the ambition to grow stronger in the wind market as this is a market with a strong growth rate and because it will give us a wider basis for running our business. Seen in that light we are extremely pleased with both winning a contract that is the largest in the history of the shipping company and at the same time within a business area where we have great ambitions, he says.

Proved its worth with wind

The contracts have been on the way for a long time. The dialogue between Siemens Wind Power and ESVAGT has been going on for three years, and the final contract negotiations have taken nearly one year. The experience with ’Esvagt Beta’ and ’Esvagt Supporter’ have helped make a contribution to proving that ESVAGT is in control of the wind market.

- It has been important for the contract that we were able to document our abilities in the wind market, says Søren Nørgaard Thomsen.

- We have more than 25 years’ track record and knowledge from offshore oil and gas, and that is what we build our knowledge on. With ’Esvagt Beta’ and ’Esvagt Supporter’ we have demonstrated what we can do in the wind market. Our concept with boat transfer is unique, and it has proved its worth, he says.

The vessels have now been ordered from Norwegian Havyard. The hulls will be built in Turkey and the subsequent finished equipment will be made at the shipyard in Norway. They will be the fifth and the sixth vessel that ESVAGT has built made to order – after the two latest ’Esvagt Server’ and ’Esvagt Aurora’. The combination of expanding the fleet both for the comprehensive charter market and the specialized tasks is a good thing, says Søren Nørgaard Thomsen:

- We will e.g. not change the strategy with the group 2 vessels in that we get the vessels without having a ready charter. But for the very specialized vessels, we build these in very close dialogue with the customer, he says.