Chinese yard CIMC Raffles has completed the conversion of a jack-up rig into a wind farm installation vessel as part of its drive to source work for idled offshore drilling assets.
The yard in Yantai city of eastern China’s Shandong province on Tuesday delivered the H213 vessel, which was converted from a Super M2 jack-up unit by dismantling the drilling tower and installing an 800-tonne lifting capacity crane.
The unit has been chartered by power utility contractor Huadian Heavy Industries to install a wind farm offshore Shandong province.
As a jack-up rig, the unit was called Gulf Driller 5 and had a short overseas stint in 2015, the year it was completed.
Since then, it has been stacked at CIMC without employment.
Huadian recently also chartered the Class 3 dynamically positioned OOS Gretha vessel for wind farm installation work offshore southern China’s Guangdong province.
The CIMC Gretha has been renamed Hua Dian Zhong Ji-01 and has just finished its first wind farm installation work.
The scope covered the installation of facilities for a 400-megawatt wind farm off Jieyang city.
The semi-submersible platform, managed by CIMC Raffles Asset Management Company, returned back to CIMC Raffles from Brazil after finishing a five-year charter with Petrobras late last year.
CIMC Raffles is also working with Huadian to charter a wind turbine installation vessel it is building in Yantai.
The unit, built for compatriot offshore wind contractor Boqiang Heavy Industry Group, will be delivered in the first quarter of 2023.
