Farm ‘rig’ based on offshore technology
NORWAY’S SalMar Group has signed a contract with Rolls-Royce for the construction of a semi-submersible fish farm rig, based on offshore oil and gas industry technology.
According to the maritime website gCaptain, Rolls-Royce will build the eight point mooring system that will be used to secure the rig to the seabed at Frohavet, off the coast of central Norway.
The installation is be- ing developed for Ocean Farming, a subsidiary of SalMar. The rig’s design is heavily influenced by proven offshore technologies and comprises a slack-anchored, semi-submersible, rigid structure design with a high degree of stability. It will measure 68m high by 110m, have a volume of 250,000m3, and will be intended for installation in water depths of 100 to 300m.
The development of the fish farming rig comes as the offshore oil and gas industry suffers one of its worst downturns on record, leaving many companies looking to diversify into the growing aquaculture sector.
‘This contract win shows how years of experience providing sophisticated mooring and deck machinery solutions in some of the world’s most difficult sea conditions can be applied in other areas of the maritime economy today and for the future,’ said Asbjørn Skaro, of Rolls-Royce.
The rig will be constructed at Qingdao Wuchuan Heavy Industry Co in China, and is designed by Global Maritime in Norway. The pilot farm is expected to be completed by the second half of 2017.