Fugro has transferred its self-elevating platform (SEP) Amberjack to Japan to meet the country's growing demand for offshore wind geotechnical services.

Under Japanese regulations, vessels registered in Japan follow a more streamlined procedure than foreign-flagged vessels when deployed for fieldwork, so this move will speed up mobilisation to project sites and allow faster delivery of Fugro's accurate geo-data to the country's developing offshore wind industry.

The Amberjack was reflagged in December 2023 and is now based in Tokyo, from where it will be deployed to wind farm projects in Japan and provide clients with geotechnical borehole drilling, high-quality sampling, and a range of in situ tests, such as downhole cone penetration tests (CPT) and standard penetration tests (SPT). Fugro's Amberjack also delivers downhole geophysical logging for preliminary and detailed geotechnical surveys and cable route surveys. All of the SEP's capabilities comply with international and Japanese geotechnical standards down to a maximum water depth of 42m.

Junichi Kuwamura, Fugro's country manager for Japan, said: "Transferring the Fugro Amberjack to Japan will help us respond faster to our country's growing demand for geotechnical SEP services. The Japanese government targets 10GW of offshore wind developments by 2030 and 30GW to 45GW by 2040. Our geo-data solutions support the energy transition and are helping to make renewable energy the main source of power in Japan, and we're proud to have this new asset ready to accelerate the development of Japanese offshore wind farms."