New York-listed wind player Eneti has filled another of the blanks in the employment of its current fleet as it makes the transition to taking three newbuildings within 2024 and 2025.
Eneti through wholly-owned subsidiary Seajacks UK has secured a $60m contract with Dutch marine contractor Van Oord for Seajacks Scylla, which it calls "the largest and most capable vessel in the Seajacks fleet".
The deal will see the 2015-built wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) move from its current employment off Taiwan back to the European market for work in 2023, the Scorpio Group-backed outfit said in a statement before markets opened on Monday in New York.
Change of venue
“Securing this charter will bring the Scylla back from the Asia Pacific to the European market by the end of 2022," said Eneti chief executive Emanuele Lauro.
"For a large and highly capable installation vessel like Scylla, we are seeing numerous opportunities in the UK and Europe in 2024 and 2025 as wind turbines increase in size and weight and are located further offshore."
Scylla is currently employed on a contract with Orsted on the Greater Changua offshore wind farm off of Taiwan.
But Seajacks chief executive Blair Ainslee noted that the unit would not be doing its first work for Van Oord.
"The Scylla was previously chartered by Van Oord in 2019 to install monopile and transition pieces at the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind farm in Germany. We had a positive experience there, and we look forward to another safe and efficient installation project," Ainslee said.
Newbuildings coming
Eneti has made headlines recently with its developing three-WTIV newbuilding programme. The project will see two units come from South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in 2024 and 2025, and a Jones Act-compliant vessel from Texas shipyard Kepel AmFELS in 2024 once "final discussions" yield a contact.
Eneti in August carried out a $521m acquisition of one of the most experienced players in the wind installation business, Seajacks International of the UK and its five existing WTIVs.
Seajacks was founded in 2006 and called itself the largest owner of purpose-built, self-propelled WTIVs in the world, with a pedigree for installing wind turbines and foundations dating back to 2009.
Seajacks and now Eneti are supervising the construction of the first Jones Act-compliant WTIV newbuilding ever to be constructed — Dominion Energy's Charybdis.
Eneti shares ticked up slightly in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange in what is expected to be a quiet holiday week for US equities.(Copyright)
