Swire sails into offshore wind farm market

Swire Blue Ocean has taken delivery of the biggest ship in the world specifically built to install offshore wind farm equipment in a move that marks the firm's entrance into the burgeoning global offshore wind farm market.

The firm is a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Offshore, which is part of the Swire Pacific Group that is also the major shareholder in Hong Kong flag carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways.

The 161 metre vessel, which has been named the Pacific Orca, will further enhance Swire Pacific Offshore's capabilities. Its main focus at present is providing tugs and support ships to oil and gas rigs. The Pacific Orca was delivered on Friday and will be joined by a sister ship, the Pacific Osprey, to be delivered at the end of the year.

Both ships are being built by South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries and will be deployed to Europe, where most wind farm developments are taking place.

They have six jack-up legs that can be lowered onto the seabed and push the vessel above the ocean surface. That allows the installation of wind farm equipment in water up to 60 metres deep.

Pacific Orca will help build the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm near Barrow-in-Furness on England's northwest coast. The vessel will install 108 monopile foundations, each weighing 650 tonnes, and associated equipment for the project, which is being developed by Denmark's DONG Energy and Scottish Power Renewables.

Rikke Stoltz, business development manager and director at Swire Blue Ocean, said the ship could carry up to five monopile foundations at a time. It also has the capacity to carry up to 12 turbines, comprising wind farm towers, generators and turbine blades, up to 3.6MW in size. It takes about 24 hours to install each turbine or foundation, but this depends on the exact nature of the installation work and the weather conditions.