Maersk Supply Service forges US wind pact with Edison Chouest Offshore
Maersk Supply Service (MSS) has teamed up with Louisiana-based OSV giant Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) to build and operate a feeder spread that will support the Danish offshore shipowner and contractor’s wind farm installation vessel newbuild in US waters.
The newbuild spread is intended to ship wind turbine components or foundations to the installation site while the installation vessel remains on site.
The purpose-built solution will include two tugs and two barges to be delivered in 2026. The vessels will be owned and operated by ECO and built by Bollinger Shipyards in the US.
MSS said that by using US-built, owned, and flagged tugs and barges to ferry turbine components, its locking and stabilising mechanism between the installation vessel and barge will render the work far less dependent on weather conditions, thereby reducing the number of operating days required to install a wind farm.
“Maersk Supply Service’s new installation concept can make offshore wind farm installations significantly faster with estimated efficiency gains of 30%. The partnership with ECO makes this new technology available for the US offshore wind market enabling faster offshore wind installations in the US,” said Christian Ingerslev, CEO at Maersk Supply Service.
Dino Chouest, executive vice president of ECO, added that the partnership facilitates the expansion of the company’s existing footprint in the US offshore wind industry, and its decades of offshore experience, efficiency and focus on technology could “play an important role in the further development of the US offshore wind segment”.
Maersk Supply Service ordered its first wind farm turbine installation vessel at Singapore’s Seatrium for delivery into US waters in 2025 under a contract for offshore wind farms Empire 1 and 2, developed by joint venture partners Equinor and BP, and also had another deal lined up with the same duo for the Beacon Wind project, expected to start in 2028. Meanwhile, the Empire 2 project was canceled, and Equinor and BP agreed to separately develop the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects, respectively.
