Van Oord orders cable-lay vessel

Van Oord has contracted Vard in Norway to build a DP-2 cable-laying vessel.

The vessel, based on the VARD 9 02 design, is expected to be fully operational in 2023.

According to the company, the vessel has been designed with sustainable technologies to reduce the carbon footprint during operations and port standby. Apart from the possibility to run on bio fuel, this hybrid vessel will have future fuel ready engines with built-in flexibility to anticipate e-fuels. It will have a large battery pack, a shore supply connection, and an energy management system.

It will be equipped with a below-deck cable carousel and a second carousel on deck, with total cable-carrying capacity of 8,000 metric tons (8,818 tons).

The vessel will mainly be deployed on inter-array grid and export cables of offshore wind projects. It is also expected to be able to install high voltage direct current cables. Van Oord’s cable trenchers can also be operated from this vessel.

This will be the company’s second cable-laying vessel in addition to the Nexus. It will measure 130 m (427 ft) in length and 28 m (92 ft) across the beam and will be Dutch flagged.

The hull will be built at the Vard Tulcea shipyard in Romania and will be outfitted and delivered from Vard Brattvaag in Norway.

Source: Offshore Magazine