A steel cutting ceremony was held on 18 February for Nexans’ new DP3 cable-laying vessel Aurora in Crist, Poland. "This is a proud moment for Nexans and an important milestone for the organisation," said Nexans subsea and land systems business group senior vice president Vincent Dessale.
"With this modernisation we will further strengthen our ability to deliver green power for the future. Aurora will play a key role installing our cutting-edge submarine cables to help bring more energy to the world, connect offshore windfarms to the grid, support electrification of offshore petroleum installations and create interconnectors between countries," said Mr Dessale.
The hull is being built at Crist, Poland, while the engineering, outfitting and system integration, equipment preparations, testing, sea trials and finalising will be carried out at Ulstein Verft, Norway.
The vessel will be outfitted for power cable laying, including bundle laying, cable jointing and repair and cable system protection and trenching. The ST-297 CLV is designed by Norway’s Skipsteknisk. The vessel is developed for operations in rough weather and has high manoeuvrability and station-keeping capabilities. Delivery is scheduled for 2021.
The advanced cable-laying vessel has a turntable with a cable capacity of 10,000 tonnes, and the fibre-optic basket holds 450 tonnes. The vessel will be 150 m long, 31 m wide, with a deadweight of 17,000 tonnes and capacity to accommodate 90.
The shipbuilding contract for Nexans' flagship was announced in July 2018 when Ulstein Group chief executive Gunvor Ulstein said “We have a strong organisation with long experience in delivering advanced vessels, and we look forward to a constructive and fruitful co-operation with Nexans in the years to come.”
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