Ecosse Subsea Systems Ltd (ESS), a Scottish subsea technology company, has been awarded a £5 million contract to design, build and operate a cable-lay system for a European utilities provider, which remains unnamed for now.
ESS will support the array cable lay and pull-in component of a wind farm project located off the Humber Estuary in north east England. ESS was previously engaged to carry out seabed preparation and boulder clearance work on the same project using its SCAR plough technology. However, this is the company’s first renewables cable-lay award and includes laying more than 70 inter-array 800 metre cables, which link the turbines to transformer stations.
The unnamed client has chartered the Atlantic Carrier support vessel which mobilised from Sunderland for the campaign expected to last up to 10 months. ESS will add an extra 30 staff to its existing 60 strong team to compete the contract.
Mike Wilson, ESS managing director , said that the company’s growing reputation in renewable subsea projects had opened up new markets to Scotland’s only equipment-owning energy sector cable-laying specialist.
“We’ve completed countless cable and pipe lay projects in the major oil and gas producing regions but this award is a breakthrough in to the renewables cable-lay market which could significantly impact on our business, ” he said.
“Our reputation in the traditional hydrocarbon industries for innovation is well established and we are looking to repeat that in the renewables sector which can benefit from the hard lessons we and other technology providers have learned in oil and gas over the last few decades.”
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Press release, February 18, 2014; Image: ESS