Royal Dirkzwager teams up with North Sea Farmers on our Offshore Test Site
2020-11-12
Our Offshore Test Site, located 12km off the shore from 
Scheveningen, is a location dedicated to test all types of innovative ideas in offshore conditions. Here, amongst others, seaweed is being cultivated and improvements in nature for offshore wind parks are being tested. As you can imagine the Offshore Test Site is a valuable location, not only for gathering knowledge, but also in the sense of material being placed within the test area. As the site is located offshore, safeguarding it is challenging. The North Sea region is one of the busiest worldwide with a lot of maritime traffic. This is why North Sea Farmers is happy to have found a partner for making sure that the test site remains a safe area for our pilots: Royal Dirkzwager. Marjolein Kijzerwaard, Manager Marketing & Sales, would like to introduce Royal Dirkzwager and their ROAM service to you!
Who is Royal Dirkzwager? “We are the eyes and ears of the maritime world. 24 hours a days, 365 days a year, we share as the maritime information specialist our knowledge and expertise with organisations in the maritime and offshore industry. We think in solutions for the challenges our customers face. By cleverly combining services such as monitoring, reporting, detection and communication, Royal Dirkzwager always knows how to offer customers the best solution. Whether it is about saving time and money, ensuring the safety of people and equipment at sea or reducing the burden on the environment. It’s our goal to let our customers excel.”
What does Royal Dirkzwager do best? “Royal Dirkzwager operates in the heart of the shipping industry. Our fully equipped 24/7 maritime control room offers real-time visibility of all vessels that affect your daily operations. We detect, monitor and report all incoming and outgoing vessel traffic in and around the port, waterways, at sea and in the vicinity of offshore assets. The primary aim of our ROAM service is to ensure safety of personnel (on platforms), continuity of production (oil & gas platforms and wind & tidal farms) and prevent damage to these assets. From our control room in Maassluis we monitor the shipping traffic in the vicinity of these objects 24/7 by using an Automatic Identification System and Radar. Vessels that are about to create a potentially harmful situation are contacted via maritime radio to change their dangerous course. Depending on the established procedures, both the platform operator and authorities are informed.”
Our NSF Offshore Test Site must be quite a different type of client. Or aren’t we? “Yes and no. Our ROAM service is used by operators in the Oil & Gas industry. The primary aim of this service is to ensure the safety of personnel on platforms and continuity of production. Your offshore test site is a different kind of asset compared to an oil rig for example. But your test site is a valuable location which you want to protect as much as possible. This is the same reason why other customers use our ROAM service.”
Imagine 400km2 of seaweed farms in the North Sea. Do you see your role changing in that scenario? “We strongly believe that the North Sea plays an important role in the energy transition. From windfarms to floating solar farms and seaweed farms. Will it change our role? I think it will emphasize the importance of someone watching vessel traffic 24/7 and protect all these different assets. So at the very least I think our role will be more obvious to all the users of the North Sea.”
Now you know why North Sea Farmers is delighted to partner up with Royal Dirkzwager. In our pioneering sector it is very important to protect the assets which are placed in the Offshore Test Site and therefore guide vessels around this area. Would you like more information on this service? Get in touch with Royal Dirkzwager here.
