Fugro has completed a contract for Nexans to provide remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey and monitoring support services to lay the North Sea Link cable through a mountain and along a lakebed in Norway.
National Grid NSN Link Ltd and Statnett SF are building an electricity interconnector between Kvilldal in Norway and Blyth in the UK which, on completion, will be the longest subsea interconnector in the world.
Fugro, based in the Netherlands, provided survey and monitoring solutions to support the installation of two cables through the mountain between Hylsfjorden and Lake Suldalsvatnet, and along the lakebed at a depth of 210 meters.
Working with its client Nexans, the project took a year planning and preparation before Fugro provided one month of remote and crewed services to support the installation of the two power cables.
The cable work platform (CWP), purpose-built onsite, was mobilized with an FCV1000 work class ROV to perform touchdown monitoring during cable installation.
During the cable lay, the cable’s departure angle was monitored in near real-time using Fugro’s vision-based InclinoCam system, which does not require sensor packages to be fitted onto the monitored asset, making it quicker and safer than conventional monitoring systems, Fugro explained.
Due to limited space for personnel onboard the CWP, the acquired survey Geo-data were streamed in real-time to Fugro’s remote operations center (ROC) in Aberdeen for real-time monitoring and project support, including near-real-time processing, and also to Nexans in Oslo.
"This remote strategy approach ensured operational continuity and allowed the client to monitor their project with minimal personnel onsite," Fugro said.