Van Oord breaks subsea rock installation record
Van Oord’s flexible fallpipe vessel Stornes has set a new world record. The vessel carried out subsea rock installation works in a record water depth of 1,364m. A distance comparable to almost five times the length of the Eiffel tower. The Subsea Rock installation (SRI) works were executed in relation to the development of the Sangomar field in Senegal.
Subsea7 contracted Van Oord to install 262.000t of rock in water depths ranging from 800 to the record depth of 1,364m for the stabilisation and protection of subsea infrastructure. The Sangomar field is located approximately 100km south of Dakar. Due to the remote project location, the rock is supplied to the vessel by a ship-to-ship transfer method. “With this record Van Oord strengthens their position as market leader for SRI, both in accuracy, efficiency and depth”, Rob Bakker, Operations Manager at Van Oord, says.
Van Oord has led the market in subsea rock installation for more than thirty-five years, servicing the offshore and offshore wind industry in pre- and post-lay rock installation on pipelines and cables, scour protection installation, seabed preparation and ballasting services for offshore structures. Van Oord has developed a system in-house to install rock precisely and efficiently at greater water depth. This system gives Van Oord the ability to reach the record breaking water depth.