The first of six OSSV ships for Foga is due to be completed in early 2026. Illustration: OS Energy OS Energy

A real job boom is underway at Esbjerg Port.

This comes after Esbjerg Shipyard secured a historically large order for up to six Offshore Survey and Service Vessels (OSSV).

And this will indeed be good news for employment at Esbjerg Port, according to Jydske Vestkysten.

- If all goes well, the work at the floating dock is secured for the next five to six years. 85% of the order will be handled in Esbjerg using local labor, states Kjeld Vogt, who is the director of Granly Gruppen, which owns Esbjerg Shipyard.

The shipyard currently employs 50 people, but the order is expected to increase this number to around 200, the director estimates.

The director also notes that the order makes the shipyard attractive in terms of recruitment. Especially since the ships are designed to be able to sail on a mix of methanol, gas oil, and battery, thus drawing labor interested in green fuels.

Billion investment

It was at the beginning of November that Foga could break the news about the new vessels made in Esbjerg.

Foga is the Danish part of O.S. Energy and is based at Esbjerg Port itself.

Esbjerg Shipyard itself has described the order as a milestone, as it is the shipyard's first new building project since 2020. Initially, Foga has ordered one OSSV, but this order may be extended to five more.

- It is a project we have been working on for a year, and we are really pleased to see that it has now succeeded, Bo Fyhring Sørensen, the CEO of Foga, has previously told Søfart.

The first vessel is expected to be completed in the first part of 2026, and an option for five additional ships has been secured at Esbjerg Shipyard.

The Jutland shipyard has not built anything new since 2020, when it constructed a hydraulic boat for a Norwegian offshore customer.

The six ships will sail primarily on green energy, says Bo Fyhring Sørensen.

- From day one, we will be sailing with a mix of methanol and gas oil – and then battery. When enough methanol is available in the market, we will sail only on methanol and battery.

The partnership behind the order expects to invest 130 million euros (almost one Danish billion) in the six new ships.

State-of-the-art vessels

It is the investment and asset manager MPC Capital and the offshore specialist O.S. Energy that have joined forces to realize a fleet of next-generation service vessels at sea.

The six new Offshore Survey and Service Vessels (OSSV) will primarily be used in offshore wind farms in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

This addresses a specific challenge, according to O.S. Energy, which estimates that the production capacity of offshore wind turbines in Europe will increase by more than 20% per year until 2033.