First Jones Act-compliant cable layer deal agreed

The 300-foot (91 metres) vessel will be built to support Equinor’s offshore wind farm for New York, despite the controversy and threatened shut-down of sites by the current US administration. It is the first Jones Act-compliant US-flagged cable-lay barge.

The barge will have a 3,500t capacity carousel that can be reconfigured for future projects, for instance upgrading it to 7,000 tons. The barge can lay and bury subsea cable using burial tools such as a vertical injector, jet sled or jetting ROV.

“The cable lay barge will provide a productive supply chain solution for offshore energy, telecommunications and other sectors ,” says Graham Tyson, vice president of operations, Crowley Wind Services. “Coupled with  our US maritime fleet and mariners providing feedering services and other logistics and project management capabilities, we could not be better equipped to serve the needs of industries seeking subsea cable solutions.

As well as offshore wind connections, the cables could also be used for other industrial uses such as telecommunications.

“This barge will support our existing fleet of cable laying vessels, the Nexans CLV Aurora, C/S Skagerrak, and CLV Electra, and we are pleased to be working with Crowley on developing the capability to lay nearshore subsea cable in the US,” said Pascal Radue, EVP of Nexans’ PWR-Transmission Business Group, highlights the significance of the partnership.”