DONG Energy orders $139 mln vessel from COSCO

Denmark's DONG Energy has ordered a new vessel specially designed for installing wind turbines at sea from China's COSCO Shipyard Group Co, the state-owned Danish company said on Monday. 'The contract has a value of $139 million,' DONG Energy said in a statement.
The order was placed with COSCO Shipyard Group, a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), by DONG Energy's A2SEA unit which specialises in installation of turbines at offshore wind parks.
'An increasing number of offshore wind projects in the near future will lead to even higher demands for installation vessels than already seen today,' A2SEA Chief Executive Jens Frederik Hansen said in a statement.
'Bringing down the installation time is an important factor in the ongoing work of industrialising the process to bring down the cost of constructing offshore wind farms,' DONG Energy said.
The new vessel is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2012 and be named Sea Installer and will be designed to operate at water depths of up to 45 metres, DONG Energy said.