Fugro’s self-elevating platform moves to Japan to pursue geotechnical work

Fugro has transferred its self-elevating platform (SEP) Amberjack to Japan in order to easier support the local offshore wind market with geotechnical services.

Amberjack was reflagged in December 2023 and is now based in Tokyo, from where it will be deployed to Japanese wind farm projects and provide clients with geotechnical borehole drilling, high-quality sampling, and a range of in situ tests, such as downhole cone penetration tests (CPTs) and standard penetration tests (SPTs).

The platform also delivers downhole geophysical logging for preliminary and detailed geotechnical surveys, and cable route surveys.

According to Fugro, vessels registered in Japan under Japanese regulations follow a more streamlined procedure than foreign-flagged vessels when deployed for fieldwork, so this move will speed up mobilization to project sites and allow faster delivery of geo-data to the local offshore wind industry.

All of the SEP’s capabilities comply with international and Japanese geotechnical standards down to a maximum water depth of 42 meters, the Dutch company said.

“Transferring the Fugro Amberjack to Japan will help us respond faster to our country’s growing demand for geotechnical SEP services. The Japanese government targets 10 GW of offshore wind developments by 2030 and 30 GW to 45 GW by 2040,” said Junichi Kuwamura, Fugro’s Country Manager for Japan.

“Our Geo-data solutions support the energy transition and are helping to make renewable energy the main source of power in Japan, and we’re proud to have this new asset ready to accelerate the development of Japanese offshore wind farms.”

Japan currently has six operational offshore wind farms, with two of them being large-scale, the 84 MW Noshiro Port and the 54.6 MW Akita Port projects. The country had 153.5 MW of installed offshore wind capacity at the end of last year, not including semi-offshore wind farms accessible from coastal areas.

The Japanese Government last month passed an amendment to the “Act on Promoting the Utilization of Sea Areas”, expanding the area for setting up offshore wind to the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which would allow wind farms to be installed further out to sea from current territorial and internal waters.