To ensure ongoing cable-laying operations for the Turkish Crossing Project, deugro Italy, in cooperation with deugro Chartering, timely delivered 54 kilometers of urgent HVAC cables to a cable-laying vessel in Turkey.
On behalf of deugro’s client Prysmian Powerlink, the 3,300 metric tons of cables had to be delivered from the client’s cable manufacturing facility in Pikkala, Finland, in time to meet the arrival of the cable-laying vessel Giulio Verne at the job site, located in Dardanelles Strait, Turkey. Therefore, deugro designed and delivered a complete turnkey, all-in-one service solution, including the provision of tank engineering and installation, spooling, relevant personnel and all related activities and equipment, in addition to the ocean transportation.
After conducting market research, deugro Chartering identified a suitable vessel for the safe transportation of the urgent and unique cargo, which was available at short notice and met all the technical and personnel requirements: the heavy lift vessel BBC Xingang.
However, before the BBC Xingang could be deployed in accordance with the cargo’s requirements, several technical modifications were necessary to ensure the safe ocean transportation and smooth spooling of the cables during collection at the Prysmian factory in Pikkala and after arrival from the transport vessel to the cable-laying vessel. These included the installation of static tanks on board the heavy lift vessel and a conversion of its bow section, which were arranged for at the Port of Bremerhaven, Germany. After seven days, the tanks and required equipment were successfully installed and the BBC Xingang arrived at the Pikkala Prysmian factory port in Finland to pick up the cables according to schedule.
In Pikkala, the loading operations were executed under the constant supervision of and testing by the client, deugro, dteq Transport Engineering Solutions and the vessel’s team.
“The project team encountered harsh weather conditions and surface ice, and had to deal with the fairly long distance from the ship’s anchor position to shore. This required a perfectly aligned mooring system and constant monitoring,” said Francesco Pignati, deugro Milan, Italy.
Within a week, the cables were successfully spooled into the custom-designed tanks and the BBC Xingang arrived at the Port of Hydarpaşa in Turkey according to plan, punctually meeting the installation vessel so that the unspooling operations could be carried out as planned. After delivery, the BBC Xingang sailed to the Port of Naples, Italy, for demobilization of the spooling equipment.
“Due to the critical urgency—the cable needed to be quickly delivered in order to commence installation and keep the overall cost of the project to a minimum—scheduling, precise preparation and smooth project execution were paramount. Thanks to the professional collaboration of all partners, the tight schedule and demanding project requirements were met, and the urgent cables were delivered on time—keeping the cable-laying operations of the Turkish Crossing Project on track. The smooth project execution once again demonstrates deugro’s flexibility and ability to design and orchestrate innovative solutions that go far beyond standardized cargo movement,” said Stefano Sortino, deugro Milan, Italy.
