Saipem eyes French floating tender with Naval Energies deal

Oil and gas contractor Saipem has agreed a deal to buy Naval Energies’ floating offshore wind business.

It will acquire the French firm’s intellectual property rights and expertise in modelling, simulation and engineering floating platforms, Saipem explained.

The Italian company will also use Naval Energies to expand its portfolio and target France’s tender for 270MW of floating offshore wind capacity off Brittany.

Naval Energies has been involved in floating offshore wind for more than ten years and has developed a semi-submersible floating platform, which consists of four cylindrical steel drums connected to a ballasted base anchored to the seabed by six mooring lines.

Its platform will be used at the Groix & Belle-Île pilot off the coast of Brittany, France, and it had been targeting further floating offshore wind developments off Japan.

The firm was put up for sale by parent company Naval Group at the end of February 2021.

Completion of the transaction is subject to the companies receiving approvals from the relevant competition authorities.

Saipem is a relative newcomer to the wind power sector. It has designed the hexagonal platform for Ireland’s first floating offshore wind pilot. It is also involved in foundation installation, jacket supply and project development for large-scale wind farms off the UK, France, Italy and Saudi Arabia.