Jan de Nul completes umbilical installation project offshore Egypt

Jan De Nul Group has completed the installation and burial of the two main subsea umbilicals for the exploitation of new gas fields in the West Nile Delta concessions, located in the North Alexandria region, offshore Egypt.

Willem de Vlamingh in Norway; Source: Jan de Nul YouTube video


Jan De Nul said on Tuesday that it reconfigured its multi-purpose vessel Willem de Vlamingh into an umbilical installation vessel.

The two umbilicals, with a total length of 69 kilometers, were loaded in Norway in May 2018 and transported to Egypt. The installation campaign started with a three-kilometer beach pull for which the vessel was positioned in water depths of only seven meters. Water depths significantly increased along the route.

The company added that the campaign was successfully finalized in early August 2018 with the installation of the umbilical termination assembly at 600 meters water depth.

In order to safeguard the critical main umbilical, installation and burial were performed in parallel. Namely, Willem de Vlamingh installed the umbilical onto the seabed, directly followed by the Isaac Newton vessel for simultaneous burying of the umbilical using the jet trenching method.

Wouter Vermeersch, manager of Cables and Umbilicals at Jan De Nul Group, said: “We are very proud to have executed this umbilical installation campaign. It again proves our versatile approach and expertise in various operational fields, both onshore, nearshore, and offshore.”

David Down, project manager at Subsea 7, added: “The safe and successful installation of the main umbilicals by Jan De Nul Group represents a key milestone on our project.”