Photo description: Equinor hosted a company briefing session for potential suppliers to the Ulsan Firefly floating offshore wind project at the Ulsan Lotte Hotel on June 9. At the event, attendees are cheering "Firefly Offshore Wind Together!" in the spirit of cooperation for the success of the Ulsan Firefly Floating Offshore Wind project. From the left of the photo, Kim Dae-hwan, chairman of the Ulsan Association of Food and Marine Wind Supply Chain Companies, Managing Director of Equinor Korea Jacques Etienne Michel, Torgeir Nakken, director of the Equinor Firefly Project, Choi Jin-hyuk, head of the Ulsan Chamber of Commerce, Korea, Embret Johnsgaard, and DH Park.
- Participants included some 130 shipbuilding, steel, electrical and engineering companies from around the Busan, Ulsan, Geoje, and Kyungnam areas
- Conglomerates including Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Heavy Industries, Samkang MNT, KT Submarine, and some 300 SME officials participated showing the heightened interest in the industry
June 9, 2022. Korea More than 300 company officials from 130 companies related to the domestic offshore wind supply chain gathered at Equinor’s Firefly floating offshore wind farm supply chain company briefing held in Ulsan, showing keen interest in the 800MW Firefly project.
Torgeir Nakken, Director of Equinor’s Firefly Offshore Wind Project, “We are grateful to Ulsan and the local supply chain companies for their high interest in the Firefly floating offshore wind project. Equinor’s goal is to develop the world’s largest floating offshore wind park, and we are looking forward to seeing the Korean supply chain take part in making history in the global offshore wind industry.”
“Equinor wants to work with a competitive supply chain for a long time – it takes many years to develop a wind farm, and several decades to operate afterwards,” said Embret Johnsgaard, Director of Procurement at Equinor Korea. The Firefly project is expected to create new jobs in the local community and play a major role in revitalizing the local economy. Johnsgaard added, “We hope this project will get the ball rolling to allow more offshore wind farms to be built. We are looking for suppliers with confidence, competitiveness and capabilities, companies that can benefit from participating in the Firefly project and on creating large-scale industrial projects, and of course supply chain companies that can have a good relationship with Equinor,” Embret said.
Sekwang and Geoview introduced the process of selecting domestic supply chain companies, sharing their experience as existing suppliers who participated in the international bidding for early deliveries of the Firefly project. Sekwang is currently working with Equinor on the Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for Firefly – the first of its kind in South Korea. GeoView is a marine survey company located in Busan, participating in subsea geophysical mapping for the Firefly project.
Geoview CEO Kim Hyun-do said that in the bidding process, “not only were we given fair opportunities competing with foreign companies, but also reasonable compensation was made for all processes,”. In addition, CEO Kim Hyun-do stressed that, “we need to break away from the stereotypical thinking that if something is used in Korea, it’s just “good enough”.” “The process of maintaining a collaborative relationship with Equinor and finding answers together has become another opportunity to secure technology and know-how,” he explained, and introduced some of the advantages of working as a supply chain company with Equinor’s Firefly offshore wind project.
Choi Jin-hyuk, Head of the Ulsan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, “Equinor’s briefing session for the Firefly offshore wind supply chain is a meaningful event helping to create an ecosystem for the floating offshore wind industry. We will actively support Ulsan as a global hub city.” In addition, Kim Dae-hwan, Chairman of the Ulsan Floating Offshore Wind Supply Chain Regional Association, said that this briefing session was “like a welcome rain for businesses in this industry” and expects that floating offshore wind will play a very important role in achieving carbon neutrality.
More than 300 officials from 130 companies in the supply chain areas of shipbuilding, steel, and electricity industries, including Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Steel, Samgang MNT, and KT Submarine, attended the event.
Park Do-hyun, Senior Director of Equinor Korea who presented on the Firefly project for the participants, said, “Ulsan has great economic advantages because it has a well-equipped supply chain to build large-scale industrial floating offshore wind.”
