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60 Years Strong
Our 60th anniversary is fast approaching! 2024 marks 58 years since the offshore division of Wimpey Laboratories was created, with the aim of addressing the need for rock-solid foundations in the offshore oil and gas industry. Since 1966, we have been operating offshore. Over the last 10-20 years, as part of the green energy transition, we have seen a huge shift to offshore wind. During these almost 60 years, we have been safely and successfully delivering more grouted connections than any other offshore grouting contractor.
Wimpey Laboratories, later named Wimpey Geotech, was the first in the world to develop the process of offshore grouting. The team also created custom grouting equipment that could effectively mix grouts on the back deck of the first offshore construction vessels. In 1973, a unique recirculating jet mixer was designed for high-output offshore grouting. This equipment set new industry standards.
In 1993 Seamark Systems acquired the offshore division of Wimpey Geotech and a new chapter started for the organisation. Fast forward to 2003, we changed our name to FoundOcean and it was around this time that we began to branch out into offshore wind, deploying ultra high-performance grouts, developing our fleet of equipment and utilising Grout Density Monitoring Systems. In 2008 we set a record deploying free span correction formworks at a water depth of 4,000ft. In 2012 we designed a new high-output Super Pan Mixer which revolutionised ultra-high-strength grouting. We are proud of every project that we have been involved in since 1966, but let’s look at some that really stand out in the FoundOcean timeline.
Bullwinkle
In the late 1980s, we grouted a jacket in the Gulf of Mexico on the Bullwinkle oil platform, standing at 1,736 feet tall (529m) and weighing 77,000 tonnes. The jacket itself was 1,400 feet tall and is the second tallest object ever to be moved to another position relative to the surface of the earth. Over 30 piles were positioned around the base of the structure, which we grouted in place.
Brent Bravo Decommissioning
The Brent Field is situated in the North Sea near the Shetland Islands and was one of the largest oil and gas fields in the UK. It was brought into production in 1976 and reached the end of its cycle in 2006.
The field contained 4 platforms, 3 of which were gravity-based structures, designed to withstand stormy conditions, but harder to dismantle and decommission! Together they all weighed about as much as the Empire State Building. We were brought in to help with Brent Bravo. We developed a special concrete blend to construct six reinforced concrete blocks that supported the topside lifting of the platform. The project was an incredible collaboration between ourselves and the other contractors. You can see the moment that the whole topside is lifted off in a video, ‘There We Go’ – Lifting 25,000 tonnes in 9 seconds.
Ormonde
In 2010 FoundOcean grouted the foundations at Ormonde, in the Irish Sea, the world’s first commercial wind farm to use steel jacket foundations, which were fabricated in Scotland. Ormonde, with its thirty turbines, was also the first commercial deployment of one of the world’s largest ‘market-ready’ wind turbines at the time and is still the longest ‘single-pull’ electricity export cable installation in UK waters at 26 miles / 42km.
Gulf of Mexico Pipeline Repair
In 2011 we performed repairs on an 18-inch gas pipeline after damage was caused by an anchor during bad weather. The pipeline was situated 750 metres (2,460 feet) under the sea. For scale, that’s over twice the height of the Shard in London or the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
A clamp was installed on the pipe and then a remotely operated vehicle lowered the grout hose down to the pipeline. We also used a fabric formwork to support the additional weight of the clamp and grout, in total using 24 tonnes of cement.
North Rankin B
In 2012, we ventured over to Australia with two of our RJM mixers to complete the grouting of 16 foundation piles. This seems like a relatively modest assignment until you factor in the 182-metre-long drilled rock socket piles (almost 600 feet) which we grouted. North Rankin B remains to this day the biggest pile grouting project by cement volume.
The Salvage of the Costa Concordia
In 2013 we were asked to help with the salvage operation for a sunken ship. The previous year a tremendous tragedy occurred when the Costa Concordia cruise ship capsized after hitting a large rock off the coast of Giglio Island, Italy, killing 32 people.
The disaster left a 951 foot (290m) long vessel that weighed 114,000 tonnes stranded in a protected marine environment and precariously balanced on the edge of an underwater cliff. It needed to be salvaged in order to prevent it falling and breaking up, which could have caused an environmental disaster. Righting the vessel needed to be achieved with careful consideration for the area. We collaborated with the salvage company to create a solution – a grouted jacket used to parbuckle the vessel back up into the upright position. To support the load, over 1,269 grout bags were designed, manufactured and installed to create a formwork embankment.
Once this was completed, grout mattresses were installed on top, filled the same way as the formworks. The grout mattresses provided a flat and stable surface for the ship’s hull to rest upon once it was rolled upright and used a custom-designed cement mix.
The removal of the ship and our formworks meant nature could recover from the impact of the Costa Concordia disaster. Our expertise in design and the execution of our grout work contributed significantly to the successful salvage operation, which reached completion in 2014.
Pipe Line End Manifold (PLEM) stabilisation
In 2015, pushing the boundaries again, we grouted at an industry record depth of 5,300 feet / 1,615 metres (the equivalent of 3½ Empire State Buildings) to support a PLEM structure in the Gulf of Mexico which hadn’t achieved full penetration when landed on the seabed. This non-routine project certainly demonstrated our deep-sea capabilities. Truly an incredible feat!
Seagreen
2022-2023 saw the 114 suction bucket foundations being lowered and grouted into place at Seagreen, Scotland’s largest wind farm. These included the world’s deepest wind turbine foundation, at a depth of 192 feet / 58.6 metres, grabbing more than a few newspaper headlines.
Venterra
In 2021, FoundOcean was incredibly proud to become one of the three founding members of the Venterra Group, which now has nine member companies. Venterra’s mission is to bring together companies from the supply chain for the entire lifecycle of offshore wind, working with developers and operators through the Engineer, Build and Support phases of their projects.
Global Reach
FoundOcean operates globally, today with projects on every continent that produces offshore energy, including the first large-scale commercial wind farms in both Taiwan and the USA. We are the world’s largest and most trusted offshore construction grouting company.
Our portfolio is packed with jaw-dropping installations, from gigantic oil platforms to enormous wind farms with hundreds of turbines, and from small repair jobs to huge IRM (Inspection, Repair and Maintenance) or Strengthening, Modification and Repair (SMR) assignments. Our ability to mobilise quickly and deliver custom solutions has made us the go-to team for clients around the world.
We have continued to be at the forefront of underwater grouting innovation throughout our 60 years and are excited that we are now playing our part in the green energy transition, having grouted over 2000 offshore wind farm structures, helping countries move to a cleaner and more sustainable future.