SINGAPORE – Offshore and marine engineering company Seatrium, formerly known as Sembcorp Marine before its merger with Keppel Offshore & Marine, has secured a contract worth more than $500 million to develop platforms for two offshore wind farms located off the coast of Long Island in the United States.

As part of the contract, Seatrium’s wholly owned subsidiary Sembcorp Marine Offshore Platforms will be involved in activities including the engineering and construction of two offshore substation platforms for the offshore wind farms.

Both wind farms, known as Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2, are a joint venture between Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor and oil giant BP.

Once the substation platforms are built, they will be operated by Equinor. The project will power more than one million homes in New York and is expected to be a major contributor in supporting the US’ energy transition goals for a low-carbon future, said Seatrium in a bourse filing last Friday.

Construction of the 810MW platform at Empire Wind 1 is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023, and the 1,260MW platform at Empire Wind 2 will likely begin construction in the second half of 2024.

Construction will take place at Seatrium’s Singapore and Indonesia yards.

Seatrium will also be constructing a wind turbine installation vessel, based on a design jointly developed with Maersk Supply Service, that will be deployed at both wind farms.

Shares of Seatrium were trading up 0.2 cent, or 1.5 per cent, to 13.2 cents on Monday morning after the announcement. At market close, it was 13 cents. THE BUSINESS TIMES