Norway: Reef Subsea Nabs Ormen Lange Dredging Deal

Reef Subsea AS announced today that Scanmudring, one of its Norwegian subsidiaries, have been awarded by A/S Norske Shell a seabed dredging contract on Ormen Lange Mid-North field development.

The task will be performed by the newly-built Scanmachine 4, the new generation of the highly experienced tool carrier developed and operated by Scanmudring. The water depth, challenging seabed conditions and high precision required in achieving the work are ideal to the new Scanmachine 4 capabilities.

The project objective is to perform final seabed preparation for pipelay within narrow geometrical tolerances (+/- 20cm) and with a curved route to follow. The dredging and rectification works will be achieved at the Ormen Lange Mid-North Field Development at a water depth of about 950m, with an uneven seabed mainly composed of hard clay.

The contract has an option for similar work to be accomplished for Ormen Lange Further North development.

The Scanmachine 4, which has been available since January 2012, is the new generation of this robust, precise and flexible tool carrier platform. It has retained the existing proven design and added key improvements in technology and the ability to function in deep water up to 2500m. The Scanmachine 4 also benefit from a new generation of Control System to achieve high precision monitoring of the situation on the seabed. In this Project, the Scanmachine will be fully integrated with the Ormen Lange in-field LBL positioning system that improves positioning subsea.

Mark Preece, Reef Subsea Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are extremely pleased to have the brand-new Scanmachine 4 ready in time to support A/S Norske Shell on Ormen Lange challenging subsea gas field. Scanmudring has over the past few years performed work for Shell, sometimes repeatedly and as a subcontractor, on Inde, Draugen and Shearwater fields. The Scanmachine 4, which has been conceived for worldwide operations, has already found her market in one of the deepest and most demanding fields of the North Sea. We expect it to be attractive to all our clients around the world, who can now benefit from our extended presence and capabilities resulting from the friendly acquisition of Rotech Subsea and their current merger with Scanmudring”.

Reef Subsea AS is an international group providing cost-effective integrated subsea services to the Oil & Gas and Renewables industries. Its specialised subsidiaries – Technocean, Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical, Specialist Subsea Services and Scanmudring-Rotech Subsea – provide operators and contractors with highly experienced personnel, key subsea technologies and construction support vessels. Reef Subsea serves its clients in the deepwater or demanding environments of the North Sea, Americas, Middle-East and South-East Asia areas. Reef Subsea is a 50/50 owned company of GC Rieber Shipping and HitecVision.

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Dredging Today Staff, April 23, 2012; Image: Reef Subsea