On 8 March 2011 IRO and CEDA (Central Dredging Association) organized a successful joint members meeting. Around 225 participants listened to what the 4 large dredging companies Boskalis, Jan de Nul, Tideway and Van Oord had to say about their latest developments and their view on the contribution from the dredging industry to the oil and gas industry.
Erik de Haas, Proposals Manager Boskalis , talked about the Nordstream and Magellan projects, both environmentally sensitive areas where innovative dredging solutions were applied like making a landfall without a cofferdam.
Edward van Melkebeek, Director Offshore Jan De Nul Group, continued with a presentation on ‘Accurate dredging for sensitive pipelines at 155m and subsea rock installation at depths up to 2,000m’.
JDN’s mega dredger TSHD Cristóbal Colón has successfully completed a unique trench dredging project at 120m water depth in the North Sea for Total in which the accuracy of the dredging was very critical.
In 2010 JDN has introduced brand new flexible fall pipe vessel Simon Stevin, which has successfully completed 4 projects in its first year of operations, installing rock at water depths up to 340m in Russia, Australia and the North Sea.
Marro Vreys, Project Manager Tideway , discussed the BritNed interconnector link, which consists of two high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine cables of 245 km, designed to transmit electrical power across the North Sea between the electricity grids in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The highly mobile sand waves in which it is laid, cause a possible threat towards the protective burial depth of the cables. Two tools were used by Tideway to realize the required Protective Burial Depth were pre-sweeping and rock placement.
Koos van Oord Azn, Manager Subsea Rock Installation Van Oord Offshore, continued with a presentation on its new flexible fallpipe vessel ‘Stornes’ which will be introduced to the market in 2011. The Stornes is the largest flexible fallpipe vessel in the world with a capacity of 27,000 tonnes and a working depth up to 1500 meters.
During the network drinks afterwards, the participants were given the opportunity to meet new people and strengthen their network.
[mappress]
Source: iro, March 31, 2011