Fugro to survey Norway's first gigascale offshore wind farm

Geo-data specialist to map seafloor and sub-seafloor at Southern North Sea 2 project that is likely up for auction early next year

Fugro Synergy working on the Borssele windfarm deployment in the Netherlands
Fugro Synergy working on the Borssele windfarm deployment in the NetherlandsFoto: Fugro

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has awarded geo-data specialist Fugro with carrying out a marine site characterisation survey at the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm that will be auctioned off soon – the Sørlige Nordsjø II (Southern North Sea 2) project.

The order will include mapping the seafloor and sub-seafloor to expand understanding of the site’s geological features and support future developmental phases of the project. Southern North Sea 2 will be divided into two phases of 1.5GW each.

Norwegian petroleum & energy minister Terje Aasland in May said the slow-rolling licensing process for the 1.5GW deep water Utsira Nord (Utsira North) floating wind zone and the first 1.5GW of the shallower Southern North Sea 2 acreage could be kicked off early in 2023.
Norway earlier this year has set a 30GW offshore wind target by 2040, way higher than the 4.5GW initially planned across the Southern North Sea and Utsira North zones.

“Being awarded this project highlights our ability to provide services to the evolving Norwegian energy market,” Fugro service line manager for Norway, Robert Abelsen, said.

“We have already provided services to the smaller Norwegian floating wind test sites, and with our global experience in large-scale wind development areas, we’re looking forward to supporting the growing Norwegian offshore wind market.”

Norway’s Equinor currently is building the world’s first-ever offshore oil & gas decarbonisation project – the 88MW Hywind Tampen – which is also the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind project.

Fugro will use its largest vessel, Fugro Venturer, for surveying an area of 900 km2 along the eastern side of the Southern North Sea 2 site, and expects to acquire 5,400 km of geophysical data. The company added it will use a suite of hydrographic surveying technologies and acoustic sensors including full bathymetry and side scan sonar, an ultra-high resolution seismic (UHRS) survey, sub-bottom profiler and magnetometer.

Additionally, water column data from the multi-beam bathymetry system will also be recorded.

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Published 29 August 2022, 10:27Updated 29 August 2022, 10:27
EuropeNorwayFugroOffshore wind