COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry is breathing new life into the abandoned Octabuoy floating production, drilling, storage and offloading unit, which it built, by converting it into an offshore wind installation vessel for deployment in Chinese waters.The new scheme is an answer to Beijing's call to accelerate the development of offshore wind energy in order to reduce China's carbon footprint.A decree that the government will end subsidies for offshore wind power generation by the end of this year has triggered a rush to build wind installation vessels, some of which are being converted from offshore drilling rigs abandoned by foreign rig owners at Chinese yards.Octabuoy's conversion will involve adding a forecastle deck, poop deck and living quarters to the vessel, which within Cosco is known as N262.Well-placed contracting sources said Shanghai-based Xiong Cheng Offshore Engineering has chartered the unit for a job related to wind farm installation work in China.
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