The offshore and marine player is also exploring &lsquo moonshot&rsquo projects such as a floating nuclear platform

 

[SINGAPORE] Even as US politics roils the clean energy industry, Seatrium sees fresh growth opportunities: developing infrastructure for floating offshore wind farms, as well as ammonia production platforms and carbon capture retrofits for vessels.

 

Formed in 2023 from the merger of Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore & Marine, the company has a long track record in oil and gas infrastructure, and is now applying this expertise to green sectors.

 

&ldquo This is where we see that the market is moving to,&rdquo said Aziz Merchant, Seatrium&rsquo s executive vice-president for engineering, technology and new product development.

 

&ldquo Oil and gas is there for today we definitely have to serve our current customers, but we also see our current customers pivoting&hellip So we need to stay ahead of the market,&rdquo he told The Business Times in an interview.

 

Seatrium&rsquo s net order book stood at S$18.6 billion as at end-June. Of this, S$6.3 billion, or 34 per cent, is from renewables and green solutions. The company aims to derive at least 40 per cent of its annual net order book from this segment by 2030.

 

Part of this involves growing Seatrium&rsquo s footprint in offshore wind solutions, even amid the tough outlook.

Merchant acknowledged that the US market has slowed down due to &ldquo political reasons&rdquo . US President Donald Trump has targeted offshore wind projects, as part of a broader crackdown on clean energy. Last year, Seatrium faced the cancellation of a S$250 million contract for the Empire Wind 2 project, located off the coast of New York. 

 

But Seatrium still sees demand outside the US. &ldquo If you look at Europe, and if you look at Asia-Pacific, our customers are still coming they&rsquo re still talking to us... There are still projects out there,&rdquo Merchant said.

 

Floating wind farms and ammonia

Floating wind farms, which are still in the early days towards commercialisation, represent a big opportunity for Seatrium.

 

Unlike traditional &ldquo bottom-fixed&rdquo offshore wind farms, the turbines in floating wind farms are not grounded into the seabed. Instead, they sit on floating platforms that are anchored to the seabed with mooring lines.

 

This means that floating wind farms can be located in much deeper waters, where the winds are stronger, increasing the energy yield.

 

The total capacity of floating wind farms globally stood at just 278 megawatts (MW) as of end-2024, noted Merchant. But he believes that they could take off commercially between 2030 and 2035.

 

Industry forecasts are similarly bullish. Research outfit Rystad Energy expects global floating wind capacity to approach 90 gigawatts by 2040, led by the UK, France and Portugal.

 

Asia is also set to account for a significant portion of the market. Rystad expects the region, excluding mainland China, to capture a 20 per cent share of global installations by 2040.

 

&ldquo The good news is that consolidation in floating wind technology is already taking shape, and a clear trend is emerging from our discussions with future clients for the first wave of commercial projects,&rdquo said Merchant.

 

On the back of this trend, Seatrium is developing a floating wind semi-submersible (FWSS). Comprising three pontoons around a central column, the FWSS is designed to support wind turbines with a capacity of 15 to 22 MW.

 

Many competitors&rsquo pilot projects are for turbines of up to 10 MW. Seatrium is instead &ldquo targeting the next generation of large-scale turbines&rdquo , which could lower the levelised cost of energy and make wind power more competitive.

 

Merchant noted that countries are not keen to give subsidies for the offshore wind sector and want it to be &ldquo self-sufficient&rdquo . This makes cost efficiency an important consideration.

 

The FWSS has undergone four rounds of testing, and Seatrium is now focused on further development to hit a higher level of technology readiness. The offshore and energy company is also building up the supply chain to produce the FWSS.

 

Seatrium is also working on a floating offshore substation, a semi-submersible platform that integrates power from multiple floating turbines.

 

Separately, Seatrium&rsquo s technology unit, Aragon, has designed floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels capable of producing two variants of ammonia offshore: &ldquo green&rdquo and &ldquo blue&rdquo .

 

The green ammonia FPSO vessel will produce ammonia using hydrogen generated from renewable energy sources, such as wind power.

 

The blue one will produce ammonia from natural gas, with a carbon capture system in place to reduce emissions. This FPSO vessel has received an approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping, a classification society, that validates its technical feasibility and safety standards.

 

Seatrium is in talks with some customers on these concepts, said Merchant.

 

Carbon capture

Another segment that the offshore and energy company plans to grow is green retrofits for vessels, such as carbon capture and storage solutions, and rotor sails that improve efficiency.

 

Merchant believes that the market for such retrofits could expand, given the growing pressure from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the sector to decarbonise. International shipping contributes to about 3 per cent of global emissions, and IMO has set a target for the sector to hit net-zero emissions by or around 2050.

 

&ldquo To meet the 2050 requirement of (net-zero) emissions, you cannot renew the entire fleet. Our belief is that about 57,000 to 60,000 vessels will be retrofitted&hellip (with) carbon capture or wind-assisted propulsion,&rdquo he said.

 

In February, Seatrium completed the world&rsquo s first full-scale turnkey retrofit of a 7 MW carbon capture system on a vessel, the Clipper Eris, for Norwegian shipping giant Solvang.

 

Seatrium has signed a letter of intent with Solvang to retrofit the shipping company&rsquo s Very Large Gas Carriers with carbon capture systems, with the work expected to start in late 2026.

 

Asked if customers are willing to spend on carbon capture systems in these challenging times, Merchant noted that these types of projects can often tap government funding, and that companies themselves are also embracing these new technologies. 

 

Seatrium is also looking into &ldquo moonshot&rdquo projects &ndash such as applying its hull technology to a floating nuclear platform &ndash even though this is unlikely to materialise within the next decade. 

 

&ldquo We are not spending a lot of time today on it, but we are keeping abreast of what is happening on that kind of technology,&rdquo he noted.

 

As Merchant put it: &ldquo While we are busy today with oil and gas projects, we shouldn&rsquo t just be comfortable with what we are today we should be looking five years, 10 years down the road.&rdquo