Acteon geo-services win geophysical, geotechnical work for Scottish offshore wind farms

(WO) – TerraSond and Benthic, Geo-services brands in Acteon’s Data and Robotics division, have been awarded a combined geophysical and geotechnical survey work scope by the BlueFloat Energy and Renantis Partnership for its Bellrock and Broadshore wind farms northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland. BlueFloat Energy and Renantis joined forces to develop floating offshore wind projects in response to last year’s ScotWind licensing round. When operational, the Bellrock and Broadshore offshore wind farms will have capacities of 1200 and 900 MW, respectively.

The BlueFloat Energy / Renantis Partnership and Acteon Geo-services at the Scottish Renewables’ Offshore Wind Conference 2023 in Glasgow. From left: Susie Lind, Managing Director - UK, BlueFloat / Renantis Partnership; Richard Britton, Global Head of Offshore, Renantis; Rafal Libera, Director of Business Development – Europe, Acteon Geo-services; Carlos Martin Rivals, CEO, BlueFloat Energy; David Robertson, Project Director, Bellrock OWF; and Amy Parry, Head of Project Delivery, Broadshore OWF.

These flagship projects build on Acteon’s experience in geophysical and geotechnical offshore wind surveys. Although Benthic and TerraSond have acquired and transformed data into critical insight to drive many offshore wind developments, this award will be the first offshore wind site investigation for TerraSond in the North Sea and the first combined geophysical and geotechnical win for these Acteon Geo-services brands.

Benthic’s seafloor drilling solution, portable remotely operated drill (PROD), will be deployed on both projects. The geophysical scope will involve using the Ocean Fortune, a geophysical survey vessel designed specifically for year-round North Sea operations, which TerraSond has on long-term charter. Local content will be provided from Acteon’s broad asset base in Aberdeenshire and Acteon Geo-services brand UTEC’s state-of-the-art in-house data center in Livingston, West Lothian.

“This is an exciting time,” adds Joseph Gagliardi, Managing Director, TerraSond. “We have extensive offshore wind site investigation experience to bring to the floating wind market. The combination of TerraSond’s geophysical, Benthic’s geotechnical and UTEC’s local content data handling and positioning services from our Geo-services segment enables Acteon to offer a differentiated service. This significant win, along with our long-term charter of the Ocean Fortune survey vessel, demonstrates our commitment to the European offshore wind market in 2023 and beyond.”