UK: Fluor Claiming USD 477 Million from Greater Gabbard

According to the latest developments Fluor Corp. (FLR) will be faced with a counterclaim, to be raised by RWE AG (RWE) and SSE Plc (SSE) in respect to the North Sea offshore wind farm, Bloomberg reports.

The dispute between the aforementioned parties stems from the fact that Greater Gabbard, the joint venture between RWE and SSE Offshore Winds Ltd requested from Fluor, which is principal contractor on the project aimed at installing wind-turbine foundations on the wind farm, to repair and additionally test its turbines.

The request incurred extra costs to Fluor and prolonged their activities on the project implementation; therefore the company is claiming compensation worth 300 million pounds ($477 million).

However, the venture is ready to strike back and ask for an amount potentially in excess to what Fluor is claiming, as confirmed by Paul Coffey, chief operating officer at RWE Innogy GmbH.

“We’ve installed monitoring equipment on the structures that we believe are defective to ensure they’re only run to the extent it’s safe to do so. All 140 foundations and 140 turbines are installed, with more than 125 generating power including some on defective structures”, he said.

He added that the resolution of the dispute will probably take the form of formal arbitration, since the claim voiced by Fluor is expected to be heard in June or July, while Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds’ counterclaim will be heard in the same period next year.

[mappress]

Offshore WIND staff, April 12, 2012; Image: rwe