Page 34 - Danish Offshore Industry 2015
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WIND INCREASING ITS IMPORTANCE IN ESVAGT The North Sea and its oil and gas are still the key business areas of ESVAGT, but interest in wind farms is growing. Placing the farms further and further away from the coast makes the company’s services more and more relevant to the wind energy industry. The easily recognizable, red vessels from the standby/ rescue company, ESVAGT, are more and more often char- Ib Hansen: “ESVAGT will tered for jobs far from their handsome, new domicile at take a growing interest in wind power.” Esbjerg harbor, but by far the majority of the company’s 39 vessels are still operating in the North Sea. Here oil and gas is the dominant area of business for the shipping company making its living from selling safety and sup- port at sea. But recently new winds have started to blow. “We are dedicated to saving lives at sea, but we have focused, too, on related activities like for instance oil spill preparedness, a subject we have been focusing upon since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. That makes sense as it is a question of being on-site in a hurry in order to mop up the oil, and we are already on location around the clock every day of the year at the drilling rigs. Therefore, it was natural for us to join the so-called frst line of preparedness,” explains Ib Hansen, ESVAGT’s Head of Commercial, seeing an increasing activity in offshore wind power. “Since in 2010 being awarded a contract in Belgium AS WE SEE A MAJOR for Danish Vestas we and our vessel concept have been involved in wind power, and we have constructed a POTENTIAL FOR THE vessel solely dedicated to wind turbine support. As the DEVELOPMENT OF wind farms are moving further and further away from the coasts, our concept gets more and more relevant. WIND POWER, WE Actually, we were involved in the hookup of the Horns Rev 1, but as it was then primarily a question of sailing HAVE DECIDED THAT out in the morning and home again in the evening we IN THE FUTURE WE decided that this was not the way ahead for us. But now the present activities ft much better into our busi- SHALL FOCUS JUST AS ness concept.” MUCH ON THIS ON-THE-SPOT RESULTS IN EFFICIENCY SECTOR AS WE HAVE Crew change by boat to and from the various working units far from the coast is one of the disciplines in which BEEN DOING ON OIL ESVAGT excels. The systematic approach calling for each and every crew change having been video-recorded dur- AND GAS ing more than the last 13 years has resulted in a highly 34 / WIND INCREASING ITS IMPORTANCE IN ESVAGT
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