Oil States Industries leverages 80 years of oil and gas expertise to advance multisource energy mix
Oil States Industries, Inc. (OSI) a global provider of manufactured products and services for the traditional and renewable energy sectors, announced it is helping ensure a multisource energy mix with the development of offshore wind technologies that leverage the Company’s deepwater expertise. The Company’s most recent addition to its new technologies for the wind energy industry is a Fixed Tension Leg Platform (FTLP).
OSI’s deepwater expertise, including fixed and floating production infrastructure, spans more than 40 years of its 80-year history. The Company’s renewable energy business unit, OSI Renewables™, applies its offshore oil and gas experience to the challenges of the offshore wind industry.
As water depths, technical complexity and supply chain requirements for offshore wind farms are increasingly beyond the cost-effective limit for monopiles and jacket structures, next-generation platform technology is necessary to optimize offshore wind’s potential. While there are four current floating platform options for offshore wind projects – barges, semi-submersibles, SPARs and TLPs – each one provides certain advantages and challenges.
OSI is the leading global TLP mooring system expert, having manufactured and installed 95 percent of the world’s TLP mooring systems. OSI’s patent-pending FTLP incorporates its decades of deepwater TLP learnings to minimize levelized cost of energy (LCoE) across the offshore wind life cycle.
Current floating offshore wind platform options are constrained by limitations with port infrastructure, inland transportation routes, and harbor depth and draft, which influence the ability to build and install systems locally at commercial scale. OSI’s FTLP reduces tower weight by 75 percent, can be built locally to meet local content targets and potentially reduces the need for quayside reinforcement.
OSI’s FTLP is a 15MW system capable of 70 to 150-meter water depths and wave heights up to 10 meters, which significantly expands opportunities for offshore wind development. This range makes the FTLP a viable alternative to the conventional buoyant hull of a traditional TLP while maximizing platform stability and turbine efficiency. The FTLP also offers a low CO₂ footprint that should save up to 4,070 carbon units compared to a semi-submersible hull, and reduces seabed environmental impact by utilizing fewer and smaller anchors.
“With over 40 years of deepwater floating infrastructure experience, we understand the challenges and apply our expertise to enable developers to overcome the barriers to wind capture in the much more dynamic floating environment,” said Garry Stephen, Group Vice President - U.K. and Asia for OSI. “We’re committed to leveraging our global resources to support customers to ensure the world benefits from a broad mix of affordable and reliable energy sources, including both oil and gas as well as renewables.”
Through a global footprint spanning 14 countries and more than 1,300 employees, Oil States applies its engineering and analysis, manufacturing, testing, and offshore operational experience to provide integrated systems and services.
The Company’s offshore wind innovations will be displayed at the 2022 Offshore Technology Conference at NRG Park in Booth 1940. Throughout the conference, the Company will celebrate its 80th anniversary and demonstrate how the Company has evolved to connect the energy future with traditional and lower-carbon energy sources for a multisource energy mix.
