TE SubCom, Chevron Sign Subsea Cable Deal for Jack & St. Malo Fields (USA)

TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, announced that a contract was signed with Chevron U.S.A. Inc. to connect the Jack & St. Malo offshore facility with an undersea fiber optic communications system in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Under terms of the contract awarded to TE SubCom in November 2012, the cable system is slated for completion in May 2014.

Jack & St. Malo fields are located approximately 280 miles south of New Orleans, LA in water depths of 7,000 feet. The fields are supported by a semi-submersible platform which will be connected by 106km of submarine cable, subsea equipment, and a new branching unit to an existing fiber network. The branching unit will incorporate SubCom’s proprietary OADM technology and transmission requirements will be met by SubCom’s leading submarine line terminating equipment installed on the facility and in landing stations located in Mississippi and Texas. SubCom will be responsible for the installation, testing and commissioning of the cable system, and will be manufacturing all equipment needed for the project in its Newington, NH facilities.

“The Jack & St. Malo cable system will connect to the backbone of a larger system commissioned by SubCom in 2006,” said Derek Buffitt, Director Marine Engineering Solutions, TE SubCom. “This is the next step in the implementation of the original network with the first insertion of a new branching unit. The original system was designed to accept 64 platform connections but only 19 branching units were installed. This new branching unit insertion will prove the network design and again demonstrate the reliability and robust nature of SubCom technology.”

Jack & St. Malo will be Chevron’s fourth facility connected to the deep water fiber network in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Press Release, April 17, 2013; Image: Chevron