The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) campaign on sustainable contracting in offshore wind has been recognised by the UK’s first Offshore Wind Champion, and previous co-chair of the Offshore Wind Acceleration Taskforce (May 2022 to March 2023), Tim Pick. 

Tim Pick was commissioned by the UK Government to explore the challenges for offshore wind and published his independent report, Seizing our Opportunities, at the beginning of April. It highlighted that contracting terms in oil and gas are generally more commercially balanced than in offshore wind, noting that: “IMCA’s Renewables Contracting Principles is a helpful piece of thought leadership on this topic.” 

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One of the recommendations in the report is for: “The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) and IMCA [to] work with other stakeholders, including those with the benefit of experience of the North Sea Transition Authority’s (NSTA) approach to contracting, to develop sustainable contracting principles for offshore wind, recognising the industry’s particular features.”    

Commenting on its publication, Iain Grainger, Head of Energy Transition, and incoming CEO, at IMCA said: “We’re delighted that our campaign has been recognised in this independent report for UK Government. Since publishing our contracting principles a few months ago, we have been working hard behind the scenes to bring the industry together and move the agenda forward. If the huge ambitions for offshore wind are to be realised, we will need to see the emergence of a more sustainable approach to contracting which ensures a fairer distribution of risk along the supply chain.” 

IMCA has called for the creation of a Leading Offshore Wind Industry Competitiveness programme (LOWIC) and has met with a number of other industry associations and forums, including RenewableUK (RUK), Offshore Energy UK (OEUK), Leading Oil and Gas Industry Competitiveness programme (LOGIC) and World Forum for Offshore Wind (WFO). IMCA has also met with a number of major offshore wind developers and presented on the issue at industry conferences in Europe and the USA. 

Find out more about IMCA’s campaign here: https://www.imca-int.com/imca-calls-for-offshore-wind-competitiveness-programme/