Seajacks Zaratan Construction
July 4th 2010, Great Yarmouth
Seajacks International (Seajacks) has entered into a contract with Lamprell Energy PLC (Lamprell) to construct Seajacks Zaratan (Zaratan), a self propelled jackup that is designed specifically to service the wind farm installation market in the harsh operating environment of the North Sea, as well as to provide services to the oil and gas sectors.
Zaratan is a modified version of the MSC NG5500 design, which incorporates a fully redundant DP2 propulsion system, accommodations for 90 persons, and an 800T leg encircling crane designed by GustoMSC. With these capabilities, the vessel is able to install and maintain wind turbines and foundations in water depths up to 55 meters.
The contract also provides Seajacks with an option to build one additional vessel at Lamprell, which it hopes to exercise in the foreseeable future. Delivery of Zaratan is scheduled for May 2012, and the additional newbuild shortly thereafter.
Seajacks currently owns and operates two self-propelled jack-up vessels out of Great Yarmouth in the United Kingdom, the Seajacks Kraken and Seajacks Leviathan. Both vessels are purpose built for installing offshore wind turbines, as well as being able to perform a number of niche operations for the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Blair Ainslie, Managing Director of Seajacks, said, “We are very excited to announce the construction of Zaratan and look forward to providing this new generation of purpose built vessels to our clients. These vessels will facilitate faster and more efficient installation of turbines and foundations offshore, and establish us as one of the major contractors in this growth industry.”
Seajacks is owned by Riverstone Holdings LLC’s (Riverstone) most recent renewable energy fund, which acquired it in January 2010. Riverstone is an energy and power-focused private investment firm founded in 2000 with approximately $17 billion under management across six investment funds.
Riverstone expects to devote additional capital from its renewable fund to expand Seajacks’ current fleet.
