Odim Receives Good Report Card for CTCU-based Fiber Rope System

Odim

ODIM has received a promising status report on the CTCU based fiber rope deployment system currently in use in ultra deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by Subsea 7.

'The CTCU technology which is expected to play an important role in the Mooring and deepwater installation business area, represents a pioneering step and we believe that the result from the Subsea 7 project will make the deepwater industry confident about using fiber rope', comments CEO Jogeir Romestrand in ODIM, underlining the fact that Subsea 7 today ranks as one of the biggest players in subsea installation.

Mr. Romestrand emphasizes the importance of a successful deployment in the growing ultra deepwater area using new technology from ODIM. He believes this to be a very important factor in establishing the CTCU technology as an integral part of tomorrow's solutions in deepwater.

A total of 12 construction tasks have been successfully completed during the first trip. The second trip is ongoing.

'The CTCU based fiber rope deployment system developed by ODIM was successfully mobilized on the Subsea 7 offshore construction vessel 'Toisa Perseus' in September 2006. The vessel is currently using the system for installation and construction work in ultra deep water in Gulf of Mexico', comments Mr. Eric van Baars, Operations Director GOM, in Subsea 7. "During the first trip, 12 installation and construction tasks at water depths ranging from 2,500 meter to 2,750 meter have been successfully completed. The tasks consisted of installation of Stab & Hinge Over mudmats and deployment and stabbing of second end of umbilicals', he adds. 'The second trip is currently ongoing and will in addition to umbilical installation also include installation of large mudmats in similar water depths as for the first trip. Totally, 97 installation tasks are planned to be conducted using the CTCU system for the ongoing project.'

In February 2006, Subsea 7 decided to use the ODIM CTCU-technology for ultra-deepwater installation work on the Independence HUB project in the Gulf of Mexico. Subsea 7 considered this step-change from a conventional steel wire winch to the CTCU winch with its light weight fiber rope, high line speed and integral active heave compensation, necessary in view of the size of the scope in record setting water depths down to 2,750 meters.

With the CTCU technology, ODIM's customers can utilize fiber rope as a lifting line for subsea installation of subsea infrastructures in deepwater. Fiber rope offers substantial benefits because of its significantly lower weight, and the CTCU technology thereby helps to cut the cost of deepwater projects.

The system currently used in Gulf of Mexico has a capacity of about 50 tonnes. ODIM is now focused on further developing the promising CTCU technology for several different applications.

'We are currently being approached by major market players pushing to further develop the CTCU-technology scaled up to 125 tonnes. Timing seems to be good as several deepwater projects are identified and ODIM has established deepwater engineering team in Ålesund to be prepared to meet the market growth', says Per Ingeberg, managing director of ODIM Alitec, and responsible for developing and marketing the CTCU technology.


Most Popular Articles