New High Performance Trenching, Pipelay Support Spread For 2007 North Sea Season

CTC Marine Projects Ltd., the marine trenching subsidiary of DeepOcean ASA, has placed a £7.5m contract with Soil Machine Dynamics of Newcastle
for the supply of a very high performance, advanced technology, 2MW jet trenching system.

The system, designated UT1, will be delivered in July 2007 and will be capable of trenching pipelines of up to 1.0m dia. to 2.5m below seabed in water depths of up to 1500m and in soil strengths up to 100 kPa. It will be permanently installed on and form the key part of a new CTC pipelay support spread, based on a Norwegian newbuilding DP2 support vessel for
which CTC has recently entered a 6 year time-charter with Volstad Maritime. The spread will also carry a permanently installed 1500t carousel for installation of short length flexpipe and umbilicals, a work/survey class ROV and will be equipped to carry a second ROV, CTCs ISU plough and a flooding/testing spread.

The new vessel is designed for operation under severe weather conditions, with high sea keeping, manoeuvrability and station keeping qualities. It is 107 x 22m, has 1100m2 deck area, 150t ahc subsea crane, accommodation for 92 persons, 12,000kW installed power and a 15 kt speed.
The severe weather performance of the vessel, coupled to the high seastate, remotely operated, launch and recovery system for the trencher will enable the spread to conduct trenching operations throughout the North Sea winter period with minimal environmental downtime.

Charles Tompkins, CTCs Chairman says: Following on from the successful introduction to service of the recently delivered VMP (variable multipass plough) the worlds largest, most technically advanced and capable pipeline plough - and its support vessel, Maersk Advancer, the UT1 system represents an important next step in our ongoing investment programme.

This programme maintains our trenching capability at the state of the art, providing our customers with the most reliable, efficient and cost effective trenching and pipelay support service. We believe that this new spread will deliver a step change improvement in jet trenching capability and productivity.

John Reece, Managing Director of Soil Machine Dynamics says: The UT1 system will be a major advance in pipeline burial capability by jetting, achieved by both very high power and the innovative way in which that power is used in the trenching process. SMD have always delivered handling systems matched to our vehicle, the vessel and the extreme environment in which they operate and UT1 will be no exception to this. The UT1 system is the latest in a long line of trenching systems we have built for CTC Marine, and we are looking forward to continuing that with this very exciting project.