While the nature of disputes across the offshore construction industry could be said to be common to onshore construction disputes (in broad terms: delays, defects and scope claims), the complexity and scale of the disputes is often far greater due to the risks associated with working in an often harsh and unpredictable offshore environment, the fast-evolving and complex technology used in many of the offshore structures, and the interface risks arising from disaggregated procurement. Many of these issues are common across the full spectrum of offshore structures and vessels, including floating production storage and offloading units (FPSOs), subsea cables and interconnectors, substations, oil and gas platforms and semi-submersibles.
With the rapid pace of growth in the offshore wind industry in recent years, it is perhaps not surprising that this chapter contains a number of examples of issues and disputes typical to the sector. As demand for capacity increases, pushing wind farms further from shore and into greater ocean depths, the market is turning to floating offshore wind farms and mobile offshore wind units for future capacity and broader application. While Europe historically led the pack, taking advantage of the predictably strong winds and relatively shallower waters of the northern seas to foster a rapid expansion in size and scale of offshore wind farms, Asia is fast following suit.
The offshore construction industry is faced with an unprecedented rise in investment in offshore wind projects, as countries seek to deliver on their net-zero pledges.
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