Offshore staff
PARIS — Offshore wind has further pushed boundaries in 2022, totaling 4,000-plus vessel days in cable installation campaigns worldwide, according to marine data provider Spinergie.
The contracted days in offshore wind campaigns grew by 68% year-on-year, when demand from other sectors grew by a small margin.
Cable demand from offshore wind continues to trend upward and is set to grow further, Spinergie stated. Recently, Hellenic Cables initiated an investment program to perform a major expansion of its Corinth cable facility in Greece, in a move made to address the demand for subsea cables driven by the rapidly growing offshore wind sector.
Because offshore wind farms are now competing in gigantism and moving farther from the shoreline, the length of export and array cables is predicted to increase and, thus, the demand for cable-layers, Spinergie said. Shared offshore transmission infrastructure and multi-purpose interconnectors, which have yet to see widespread adoption, would also drive a higher demand once policies and technologies are sufficiently developed.
As demand increases, Spinergie said it has observed installation contractors specialize their cable-laying assets in cable-laying tasks, and trenching and post-lay burial jobs are increasingly performed by ships without cable installation capabilities. Deliveries have also increased in the past two years, and Van Oord’s Calypso newbuild is highly expected in 2023.
