Aeolus Ready to Go Back to Work at Saint-Brieuc OWF

Van Oord’s jack-up vessel Aeolus is set to return to the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm site in France, after halting the construction work last month due to a leak of hydraulic fluid in the drilling equipment.

The vessel’s return to the project site in France was announced by Ailes Marines, the developer of the 496 MW offshore wind farm, in a press release on 12 July.

In mid-June, Aeolus left the bay of Saint-Brieuc and set sail to its home port in Vlissingen, the Netherlands, after the installation of pin piles for the offshore wind farm’s jacket foundations was halted following a leak of more than a hundred litres of hydraulic fluid.

The hydraulic fluid, which leaked from the vessel’s drilling equipment as a hydraulic connection loosened during the work, is biodegradable with low impact on the environment.

An inspection that was done at the offshore site confirmed that repairs were not possible without reassembling the drilling jig on board the Aeolus, and the vessel left the project site to return to its home port. Meanwhile, the judicial police and the maritime gendarmerie were conducting an investigation of the incident.

At the Dutch port of Vlissingen, Van Oord carried out technical and environmental optimisations of the vessel’s tools and equipment and then tested all the relevant systems in the Port of Rotterdam from 5 to 8 July.

Ailes Marines has now filed a detailed analysis and the measures adopted since the incident to the French authorities in order to agree on the next date of return of the vessel to the Saint-Brieuc site.