Cables specialist Nexans has extended a contract with NSG Wind and Maritime Logistics Service (MLS) for two additional year to deliver and coordinate four guard vessels to the NordLink interconnector.
The initial contract, signed in spring 2017, will now add three new campaigns in 2018 and two in 2019. During each campaign, a new cable will be installed to complete the NordLink interconnector.
The first campaign is on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and starts in Q2 2018. The cable to be installed is parallel to the one that was installed in 2017 from Vollesfjord and towards the border at sea between Norway and Denmark.
NSG Wind is the contract partner with Nexans Norway, while MLS is responsible for vessel intake (chartering of the guard vessels) as well as marine coordination towards the Nexans Project Group and Statoil Operation Center in the project phase.
The guard vessels’ main mission is to protect the subsea cable by preventing fishing boats, mainly trawlers, crossing the unprotected cable before it has been trenched into the seabed or protected by rock berms. Initially, there are four guard vessels that will protect each unprotected cable at the same time, but at the most, up to eight guard vessels are coordinated at the same time.
“We are very pleased to have renewed confidence from Nexans, at the same time, it is good to see things start moving in the market after a long period of low activity,” says Tom Nilsen, MLS marine coordinator.