Wagenborg is a company that has literally broken the ice in the harshest and desolate environments in the world. Its early operations mainly involved the timber and salt trade to the Baltic, but today Wagenborg sails the seven seas. Even so, the majority of its fleet movements can be traced back to the Baltic, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, and Arctic waters. Why is that? Despite global warming, those areas are still characterised by harsh winter conditions, and it’s in those conditions that Wagenborg’s largely ice-reinforced fleet operates extremely well. That may sound pretty simple, but in practice, things are rather different.
We talk to Koos Zumkehr (director chartering), Coos Blaauw (chartering manager) and Hans Kroon (director Wagenborg Shipping North America) about scale, cooperation and fleet development.
After a tender procedure, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) and Shell UK Exploration & Production (Shell UK) have signed a contract with Wagenborg Offshore for the deployment of a second Walk-to-Work vessel. The new vessel will join the Kroonborg, put into service almost three years ago, in maintaining NAM and Shell UK’s unmanned platforms in the southern sector of the North Sea. We talked to Joris Eelman, Maintenance & Ops team leader NUIs, about the second Walk-to-Work vessel and how he sees the future.
Maurice Stokhof de Jong is the Contract Manager at the Projects & New Build department. He’s been closely involved in the development and construction of numerous vessels and he keeps close track of technological developments so as to be prepared for the future – which is very necessary. “When you look at it over a long period of time, shipping has switched from being 100% sustainable (sails, wind energy) to being 100% fossil-fuel powered, and now – in a highly regulated period – we’re switching back to 100% sustainable.”
In 2015 Wagenborg agreed on a three-year term contract with Nordkalk, fully owned by the Finnish Rettig Group, for the transport of limestone and with Bore Ltd. for the acquisition of four multipurpose vessels. Wagenborg was selected responsible for the transport of about a million tonnes of limestone (and related products) with destinations in the Baltic Sea. Recently Nordkalk and Wagenborg renewed this contract for another three years. Together with Julian Rohde, Corporate Shipping Manager for Nordkalk, and Coos Blaauw, Chartering Manager for Wagenborg Shipping, we look back over the past few years and glimpse into the future of both family owned and managed companies.
After 20 years of service in the Caspian Sea, ‘Ice Breaking Support Vessel’ (IBSV) Arcticaborg is embarking on a new adventure. For the next five years, it will support Fathom Marine in the Canadian Arctic waters. With captain Igor Umerenko at the helm, the Arcticaborg left Kazakhstan for Vancouver, Canada, a journey of 10.000 miles.
Over the past 15 years, Wagenborg has built up an impressive track record in logistics for various offshore wind farms in the German Bight. In doing so, the company is making a significant contribution to the transition to sustainable energy. And in 2018, Wagenborg is once more at the basis of a new offshore wind farm, the Borkum Riffgrund 2 – and this time that means literally! Wagenborg has been contracted by the Jan de Nul Group to transport the foundations for 36 wind turbines. Each foundation consists of a monopile, a transition piece, and an anode case. In addition, Wagenborg also transported a special pile driver and a “noise mitigation system” for installing the foundations.
These are turbulent times for offshore wind energy in Europe: a prominent topic within the energy strategy of the countries surrounding the North Sea. Several offshore wind farms at various stages of operational deployment have taken hold in the German Bight; fully operational, commissioned, and under or scheduled for construction. But how is the electricity generated at sea delivered to the electrical grid?
