Subsea Cable

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group, NTT World Engineering Marine Corporation (NTTWEM) and NTT Finance Corporation jointly held a launch ceremony on November 16 for their new submarine cable-laying vessel “Kizuna” at Kanrei shipyard in Tokushima, Japan.

GTT Communications, Inc., a leading global cloud networking provider to multinational clients, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Hibernia Networks, a leading provider of global, high-speed network connectivity solutions and owner of terrestrial and subsea fiber assets including Hibernia Express, the lowest latency transatlantic cable system.

NEC Corporation has finished construction of the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) Submarine Cable connecting Japan, South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, and Ciena have agreed to an alliance that furthers the advancement of open submarine cable networking solutions.

Subsea IMR provider, N-Sea, has increased its fleet through the long term charter of Siem Offshore’s offshore subsea construction vessel, the Siem Barracuda.

Makai Ocean Engineering is now offering an advanced cable laying course for operators who have managed real cable installations at-sea using MakaiLay. In addition to filling any knowledge gaps that operators might have in basic lay operations, this MakaiLay Level-II training course focuses on more advanced scenarios that might arise at-sea.

Prysmian Group, a world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has been awarded a contract worth up to 13 M euro - by Tideway B.V. for the Rentel offshore wind farm project.

The offshore wind industry is expanding at a rapid pace, making timely, accurate intelligence more valuable than ever for companies who install, operate, and maintain subsea cable systems. Of course, the same is true for companies providing products and services in support of these companies.

Low-latency route between Hong Kong and U.S. to be completed by summer 2018

Tampnet Inc., the US subsidiary of the Norwegian-based leading offshore high capacity and low latency communications provider Tampnet AS (“Tampnet”), recently announced the closing of its acquisition of Broadpoint LLC (“Broadpoint”), a pioneer within offshore communications to the Oil & Gas (“O&G”) industry in the Gulf of Mexico (“GoM”).

An innovative development by Fugro for its work class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) has been utilized successfully in cable lay touchdown monitoring operations at the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm.

On September 18, 2016 DEME launched the world’s most advanced subsea cable installation and trenching vessel ‘Living Stone’ at the LaNaval shipyard close to Bilbao, Spain. The launching ceremony was initiated by Mrs. Sarah Tommelein, spouse of Mr. Bart Tommelein, Vice-Minister-President of the Government of Flanders and Flemish Minister for Energy.

The cable installation vessel ‘Living Stone’ is engineered with the latest innovations in its category. The vessel is equipped with two turntables below deck, each having a 5,000 tons cable capacity. Together the turntables can carry and transport more than 200 km of cable that can be installed in a single trip. Ample deck space of 3,500 m2 facilitates a revolutionary cable handling system with innovative and reliable cable handling tools for cable ends, connections and cable protection systems. Furthermore, the ‘Living Stone’ can be equipped with a third carrousel above deck with an additional load capacity of 2,000 tons and a 600 tons crane. A system developed in-house by Tideway enables the ‘Living Stone’ to install cables faster and more efficiently in longer lengths and with less offshore joints than any other cable installation vessel.

The vessel will serve transport and installation projects as well as offshore power cable installations, interconnectors for the future European Supergrid amongst others.

The ‘Living Stone’ features DP3 (Dynamic Positioning 3) capability and has been designed as an environmentally friendly vessel with dual fuel engines with LNG being its prime fuel. The ‘Living Stone’ has a Green Passport and the Clean Design Notation awarded to owners and operators who choose to design and operate their vessels in an environmentally sustainable approach.

The ‘Living Stone’ can accommodate a crew of up to 100 persons and will be deployed by DEME’s Dutch subsidiary Tideway. The unique vessel is scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of 2017 and will head to its first project at the Merkur offshore wind farm in Germany, 45 km north of Borkum in the North Sea, for the installation of inter array cables. The ‘Living Stone’ will also be deployed for the cable installation at the world’s largest offshore wind farm Hornsea Project One in the UK.