Empire Wind service vessel launches in New Orleans

The newly built service operations vessel (SOV) for Equinor’s Empire Wind development offshore New York State has undergone a naming ceremony on the Mississippi River at the Port of New Orleans.

Edison Chouest Offshore built the 262-ft, hybrid-powered ECO Liberty. It will depart shortly for New York, where it will be based at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

There, a new staging facility, operations and maintenance base, and control center for the Empire Wind project are taking shape.

The ECO Liberty SOV will support marine construction in the lease area and eventually house Empire Wind technicians when stationed offshore.

It will also be one of seven new US-flagged vessels added to the US Jones Act-compliant fleet, due to Empire Wind.

The 810-MW development, 15-30 miles southeast of Long Island, covers 80,000 acres in water depths ranging from 75 ft to 135 ft.

Last month, a crew member died while aboard a vessel working on the Empire Wind 1 project offshore New York. The incident occurred June 2 aboard Tidewater's Polaris platform supply vessel.