Aberdeen contract for Boskalis

An offshore contract worth more than €100 million has been awarded to Dutch dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services company Royal Boskalis Westminster for a project off the coast of Scotland.

The offshore balance of plant contract was awarded by Swedish power company Vattenfall for the construction of the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, also known as the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. Having earlier been named as preferred contractor, the contract has now been formally awarded to Boskalis.

The project will consist of 11 wind turbines with a capacity of 92.4MW. The contract includes all offshore elements of the wind farm, with the exception of the wind turbine supply.

Aberdeen Offshore Windfarm is located approximately 3km off the coast of Aberdeen, in north east Scotland.

The Boskalis involvement will include the design, procurement, fabrication, supply, transportation and installation of 11 suction bucket jacket foundations and scour protection, the procurement, supply, transportation and installation of 66kV inter array and export cables by Boskalis subsidiary VBMS, and the provision of the wind turbine transportation and installation vessel.

Boskalis said the use of suction bucket jacket foundations in conjunction with the large wind turbines and the use of high capacity 66kV power cables made this project unusual.

Work on the offshore project is scheduled to start in September 2017, and completion is expected in the second quarter of 2018.

The loss of 24 vessels and 650 jobs worldwide was announced this month by Boskalis, following a fleet rationalisation study announced earlier this year.