Italy-based Prysmian Group, which makes and installs energy and telecom cable systems, has secured a €60 million (~$62,5 million) contract for laying submarine cables for the already secured Project Lighting HVDC 320 kV interconnection project in the UAE.
The initial project was awarded to Prysmian under a limited notice to proceed last January 2022 by Samsung C&T as part of its EPC consortium with Jan De Nul Group, and the initial contract was worth €220 million.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA) announced the successful financial closing of their $3.8 billion strategic project to power and significantly decarbonize ADNOC’s offshore production operations on September 23, 2022.
The main purpose of this new HVDC link is to replace ADNOC’s current offshore power with a green onshore power source, reducing its environmental impact and CO2 emissions, in addition to supporting its objective to decarbonize its offshore production operations.
Offshore installation operations will be performed by the Group’s cutting-edge DP cable-laying vessel Leonardo da Vinci, with the shallow water activities being performed by the Group’s advanced cable-laying barge Ulisse.
Prysmian will deploy its Leonardo da Vinci vessel to install the cables.
Under the ADNOC Lightning Project, Prysmian will design, supply, assemble and test a symmetrical monopole system consisting of four HVDC 320 kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation, along with fiber optic cable systems, that will connect the Al Mirfa onshore converter station to Al Ghallan, an artificial offshore island in the Arabian Gulf, located off the Abu Dhabi coast, in the United Arab Emirates.
The project comprises both a subsea route of approximately 134 km of submarine HVDC cables, and onshore routes located at Al Mirfa and Al Ghallan Island totaling approximately 3.5 km of HVDC land cable route. The commissioning of the project is scheduled for 2025.