New Joint Venture Emerges on Offshore Wind Market (The Netherlands)

FRISIA-Offshore, located in Germany, and Offshore Wind Services BV from the Netherlands  announced a cooperation agreement. The intention of FRISIA-Offshore and OWS is to invest together in new Crew Transfer Vessels through a joint venture in the coming months.

This joint venture will serve as growth platform for the German and Dutch market. Workships Contractors, the sole ship manager of OWS’ fleet, and FRISIA-Offshore will be working together in operational matters.

OWS is a joint venture between ferry operator Doeksen and Workships. It offers quality Crew Transfer Vessels, Multi-Purpose Accommodation Vessels and Data Solutions to the Offshore Wind sector. Following the acquisition of Offshore Wind Power Marine Services Ltd. (OWPMS) in March this year by OWS, Workships Contractors can add OWPMS’ wide experience of operating crew vessels in the UK to their 24 years worldwide offshore experience. Workships Contractors offers clients on behalf of OWS 10 dedicated wind farm service vessels ranging from 15 to 21 meters. Presently, they are operating crew transfer vessels in the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark for companies such as Vattenfall, Visser&Smit and ENECO. All together OWS’ fleet counts over 350,000 safe transfers in the past 7 years.

FRISIA-Offshore is an offshore wind dedicated subsidiary of the ferry operator AG Reederei Norden-Frisia and is located at the German North Sea coast. In addition to two multi-purpose vessels for wind farm projecting activities, FRISIA-Offshore operates two crew transfer vessels. The 22 metres long “Wind Force I” made history by being the first German new built catamaran operating at the first German Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) “Alpha Ventus”, resulting in over 13,000 safe transfers without accidents. A third vessel will be delivered in Q1 2013 and immediately deployed at OWF “Riffgat”.

Another business area of FRISIA-Offshore is to provide consultancy services during approval process of offshore wind farms, e.g. for Global Tech 1 and Vattenfall (project “Dan Tysk”). Currently FRISIA-Offshore is managing traffic surveillance at “Nordsee Ost” and “Borkum West II”, where the company additionally operates as marine coordinator.

Both companies are adding valuable experience to the operation of Crew Transfer Vessels, as well as diverse services to the portfolio. Moreover, with a larger pool of vessels the companies aim at improving international competitiveness and awareness.