Acta Marine’s DP multicats set for Zohr field work

Two of Acta Marine’s DP multicats have been called up for duties on the Zohr natural gas project offshore Egypt.

Acta Marine said that the company’s multicats were called up to assist on the Zohr project for the second year running.

According to the company, the ultra-shallow draft Coastal Discovery and Coastal Challenger will be supporting shore-end pipelay installation activities. Last year, the Coastal Chariot was the selected vessel to work off Egypt.

Acta Marine’s project manager, Sinclair McWilliam, said: “We have four pipe pulling operations planned for the coming months – all taking place in extremely shallow waters. However, these two DP Multicats can work in waters as shallow as 1.5 meters.”

Coastal Discovery and Coastal Challenger multicats will also be deployed in anchor handling, and logistics support duties. Also, equipped with a mass flow burial tool, they will also be carrying out seabed leveling.

The multicats are multi-purpose work vessels usually built with a simple rectangular pontoon hull and a long open foredeck resembling a small pusher tug.

As for the field, Zohr was discovered by Eni in August of 2015 and, with a total potential of 850 billion cubic meters of gas in place, is the largest natural gas field ever discovered in the Mediterranean.

The super-giant gas field was started-up in December 2017, only 28 months after its discovery, and is producing around 400 million scf per day. The production will gradually ramp up to reach the plateau by the end of 2019.

In related company news, Acta Marine’s new Ulstein SX195 walk to work vessel Acta Auriga, under construction at Ulstein Verft, completed sea trials last month.