Wood Group Kenny has been awarded a three-year contract by Marine Power Technologies Pty Ltd (''MPT'') to provide project management and engineering support services for the development of MPT's Energy Island (''EI'') concept on the southern coastline of Australia.

Six or more Energy Islands may be linked together to create an Energy Farm, which is estimated to supply power to 16,500 Australian households per year.

The triangular shaped EI will comprise six oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy devices and an offshore wind turbine assembly and will be capable of generating up to 10 megawatts of power.

Wood Group Kenny's initial eight month scope of work under the contract will be carried out in two parts. The first part will involve a data gathering exercise covering a wide range of environmental and technical issues, and the second part will involve conceptual study work to define the layout and configuration of the overall EI assembly.

Subsequent phases of Wood Group Kenny's involvement in this project will focus on identifying opportunities for installing EI farms along Australia's southern coastline, where there are significant wind and wave energy resources.

Steve Wayman, CEO of Wood Group Kenny said, ''This contract award strengthens Wood Group's commitment to diversifying its long-term oil and gas expertise into the emerging global renewable energy market.''

Tom Engelsman, CEO and Chairman of Marine Power Technologies said, ''The Founders, Directors and Board of MPT have been thoroughly impressed with Wood Group Kenny's work to date, and look forward to bringing the Energy Island to market with their team''.

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Wood Group is an international energy services company with $6bn sales, employing more than 41,000 people worldwide and operating in 50 countries. The Group has three businesses - Engineering, Wood Group PSN and Wood Group GTS - providing a range of engineering, production support, maintenance management and industrial gas turbine overhaul and repair services to the oil & gas, and power generation industries worldwide. www.woodgroup.com

Wood Group Kenny is the world's largest specialist subsea, pipeline and riser engineering and management contractor employing more than 2300 people worldwide, part of international energy services company, Wood Group. Wood Group Kenny comprises five companies -

• J P Kenny - one of the world's leading independent subsea and pipeline organisations, operates from seven locations worldwide and provides its clients with solutions that range from the planning stage through to procurement, fabrication, construction management, commissioning and operations support services.
• WGIM - an independent engineering & management company, specialising in all-of-asset integrity assurance with extensive materials engineering resources, service life prediction and inspection management expertise in the oil & gas petrochemicals, power, mining & mineral processing.
• MCS Kenny - a world leader in compliant riser design with an extensive track record across all riser types and water depths. This includes flexible risers, steel catenary risers, hybrid steel-flexible risers, and top tensioned risers for both floating production and floating drilling platforms. The company also provides advanced structural analysis and technology development capabilities for subsea and pipeline facilities.
• MSi Kenny - a leading flow assurance and process optimisation company.
• SgurrEnergy - a leading renewable energy consultancy.

www.woodgroupkenny.com

Marine Power Technologies (MPT) is the combination of two innovative renewable energy sources, water desalination and sound business acumen. This comes from 150 years of expertise from the MPT Board and Founders.

The largest defined sustainable energy source is the ocean, and a great deal of work has been undertaken with regard to the recovery of such power. Offshore installations clearly have the advantage of not competing for valuable land, and also tend to have more predictable wind and wave/tidal patterns.

With a great deal of work having been done over the recent past in the area of offshore wind and wave energy recovery, the basic tenet of MPT has been to leverage such wide experience and combine the same into a more cost efficient and commercially viable design.

This is based on the elimination of many of the main issues with the installation of offshore wind towers (the vessels and equipment needed for the construction and installation of the five metre diameter towers), and then leveraging the simpler Energy Island construction, such that wave and/or tidal power can also be captured.

This Energy Island concept is then further optimised with the option to very simply convert the offshore generated electrical energy, and use the same to convert sea water into potable fresh water, and pipe to shore, thereby eliminating vast current desalination problems.

Marine Power Technologies is committed to the realisation of offshore power production, and supports clients from the initial site survey to the final stages of construction.

*An oscillating water column (OWC) uses a large volume of moving water as a piston in a cylinder. Air is forced out of the column as a wave rises and fresh air is drawn in as the wave falls. This movement of air turns a wind turbine at the top of the column.

For further information contact:
Carolyn Smith, Director, Corporate Communications - Eastern Hemisphere, Wood Group
Tel: +44 (0) 1224 851099, email: carolyn.smith@woodgroup.com

Alexandra Lowen, Marketing Communications Manager, Marine Power Technologies Tel: +61 (0) 438 726 533, email: Alex@ALxAustralia.com