Cyan Renewables acquires majority stake in Sentinel Marine, while offshore wind growth opportunities drive investments in vessel upgrades, newbuilds and port infrastructure
Growth opportunities in the offshore wind market are reshaping the emergency response and rescue (ERRV) segment, driving investment in new offshore vessels and port infrastructure, and triggering a major acquisition.
Founded by Klaas Weij in 2007, family-owned Glomar Offshore has grown to become a leading owner of safety standby vessels in the Dutch offshore oil and gas sector, and ERRVs in the UK North Sea. More recent investments have expanded the Dutch OSV owner’s footprint to geophysical survey and renewables projects. Among these are Glomar Supporter (ex Bourbon Amilcar) and Global Worker (ex Bourbon Arethuse), both of which were built in India, and are under long-term charter to Rovco in the offshore wind sector.
In January, Rovco inked a four-year charter deal for Global Worker in response to “client demand for innovative geophysical and geotechnical survey solutions.” Offshore wind specialist Rovco is upgrading the MPSV with a hull-mounted gondola and the high specification sensor package, along with additional stern and starboard A-Frames to allow deployment of specialist towed survey equipment and multi-sensor towing. Both Glomar Worker and Glomar Supporter will enable full site data capture with seamless integration across data sets for temporal comparisons. Elon Musk’s Starlink and VSAT ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications will permit live streaming for real-time decision making and the movement of some roles onshore.
Sustainability and biofuels
Sustainability is a linchpin of Glomar Offshore ‘s business strategy, and this year it has begun to use 30% hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) marine fuels to reduce CO2 emissions from its fleet.
Glomar took its first steps towards making its operations more sustainable several years ago by adding FincoEnergies’ ChangeXL additive, which resulted in a 1,006,892 kg CO2 reduction in 2023.
In January, FincoEnergies supplied GoodFuels’ HVO30 to Glomar Supporter at Harlingen, the Netherlands, achieving a further 28% reduction in CO2 emissions, according to the Rotterdam-based independent fuel supplier.
Bunkering the HVO30 was “truly a milestone for us,” said Glomar Offshore fleet manager, Jan Wouter Thijssen.
Glomar Offshore chief operating officer, Melvin Weij, expects to go further. “Our next decarbonisation goal is switching to a higher blend, HVO40, with dedicated support from our partner, FincoEnergies,” said Mr Weij.
As of 1 January, Glomar Offshore will took over the vessel management of Seaspan Holding’s offshore fleet that includes Situla, Mintaka I and two newbuilds under construction.
The newbuild dynamic positioning class-2 survey vessels will carry the Green Plus notation from RINA. The new OSVs were developed at Glomar Offshore’s Globaltic Marine Shipyard in Gdynia, Poland, and are expected to begin trading in Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, respectively.
Glomar Offshore plans to gradually upgrade its existing standby fleet with IMO Tier III systems. Glomar 4-Winds and Glomar Venture will be the first vessels to be upgraded.
Sentinel Marine acquisition
Meanwhile, Singapore-based Cyan Renewables reached an agreement to acquire a 75% stake in Aberdeen-based Sentinel Marine, a leading owner/operator of ERRVs.
Although primarily designed to support offshore oil and gas operations, Sentinel Marine’s fleet is suitable for work in other sectors, including offshore wind.
Maritime attorneys Watson Farley & Williams advised Maas Capital Shipping on the sale of its majority stake in Sentinel Marine to Cyan Renewables.
Cyan Renewables said the acquisition of Sentinel Marine’s ERRVs will complement its vessel portfolio, placing the latter in a position to bring its expertise to the offshore wind market in the UK. The Singapore-based company said the deal will also create synergies in the Asian market.
Sentinel Marine chief executive, Rory Deans, said: “We welcome Cyan Renewables as our majority shareholder. With its strong financial capability, Sentinel Marine will be in a stronger position to grow, especially in the market of offshore renewables.”
Cyan Renewables founding chief executive, Lee Keng Lin, said: “With a strong management team and local know-how, Sentinel Marine is well-placed to pivot and capture a slice of the fast-growing offshore wind market in the UK.”
CNOOC Petroleum Europe recently awarded two three-year, ERRV contracts, one to Sentinel Marine for the charter of the 61-m Fastnet Sentinel and the other to Vroon Offshore for the 48-m, 2007-built VOS Tracker.
Aiming for net zero
Scotland’s floating wind ambitions will figure strongly into the future of the Port of Aberdeen. The oldest existing business is the UK, the Port of Aberdeen plans to continue making investments to improve its own infrastructure to support the assembly of floating wind turbines, as well as its own ambitions to transition to net-zero by 2040.
Established by King David I of Scotland in 1136, the Port of Aberdeen welcomes about 7,000 vessels per year, accounting for about 45% of Scotland’s overall vessel traffic.
“Energy is still the biggest part of our business and around 68% of the port is in the energy sector,” said the Port of Aberdeen chief commercial officer, Roddy James.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Offshore Wind Journal Conference in London in February, Mr James detailed the port’s £420M (US$535M) South Harbour expansion to support the renewables and energy sector, trade and tourism.
The port already supports existing offshore windfarms — some 700 vessels from the renewables sector called at the port in 2023. Following the completion of the South Harbour expansion, the port can accommodate vessels up to 300 m long and offers 7,400 m of quays, including 2,800 m of deepwater berths with a maximum depth of 15 m, with large flexible laydown and project areas adjacent to the quayside.
In April 2023, it announced its ambitions to become the UK’s first net-zero port by 2040, with up to £55M of investment over the next decade.
Emissions from vessels at berth generate some 78% of CO2 emissions in the port. As a major step to tackle this issue, The Port of Aberdeen is undertaking the ‘Shore Power in Operation’ initiative, backed by funding from industry and the UK Government, to develop Scotland’s first large-scale land side and vessel side shore-power system.
Scheduled for completion by March 2025, the project will introduce shore-power facilities at seven berths on Albert and Mearns Quays at North Harbour. The demonstrator project is projected to cut vessel emissions at the berths by more than 80% and save in excess of 60,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the next 20 years.
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