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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2009 36
Nexans has been awarded a
€42 million contract by EMC BV, a
subsidiary of Saipem SpA, to
develop, manufacture and supply
umbilicals and associated equipment
for the subsea development of Usan
deepwater oilfield, off the coast of
Nigeria. The contract is one of the
largest umbilical orders ever received
by Nexans and confirms the
company’s position as a market
leader in the subsea umbilical sector.
Nexans’ specialist umbilical facility
in Halden, Norway will produce
30 individual lengths of umbilical for
the Usan project, to be delivered on
17 reels. The umbilicals, which will
supply vital control functions and
chemicals for the subsea systems,
will connect the wells and the FPSO
(floating production, storage and
offloading) unit.
“The Usan umbilical contract calls for
high levels of product quality and
project management,” said Patrick
Barth, managing director of Nexans’
HV and accessories business group.
“We have successfully delivered a
number of previous projects for
Saipem and we believe that this track
record – combined with our good
working relationship and a high level
of cooperation – were the key factors
that enabled us to win this contract.”
In 2008, Nexans delivered similar
umbilicals to EMC BV for the Akpo
field in the same area.
The Usan oilfield is located off
the south Nigerian coast, in water
depths ranging from 750m to 850m.
Usan is expected to come on stream
early in 2012 and to ramp up
quickly to plateau production of
180,000 barrels of oil per day. The
field development plan comprises
23 producer wells and 19 water and
gas injector wells, tied back to an
FPSO unit with a storage capacity of
2 million barrels of oil.
Cable delivery should start in the
autumn of 2009
Nexans – France
Fax: +33 15669 8484
Email:
Website:
Maschinenfabrik Niehoff has
announced the addition of two new
double twist buncher sizes to its
buncher family product line: the D401
and the D1001. The product line now
starts with type D401 designed for
strands of 0.013mm² to 2.5mm² with
continuous lay length and a maximum
number of 9,000 twists per minute.
The D401 enables the production of
strands with 7 x 0.05mm construction
as smallest strand variant, while the
second type D1001 is the new
powerful double twist-bunching
machine. This machine completes the
product line and is designed for
strands of up to 50mm² with a lay
length of 300mm maximum and a
maximum rotational speed of 3,200
twists per minute. It is suitable for
large wire rope lay strands and battery
cables of copper and aluminium.
Compared to conventional bunching
machines, energy consumption and
noise emission are reduced due to the
one-bow design of the machines.
Three-phase drive technology and
contactless machine data transfer
reduce maintenance to a minimum.
Niehoff Bunching Automatic Traverse
(NBAT) automatically detects spool
flanges and controls the traverse
width of empty and full spools by
means of optoelectronic sensors,
without machine operator intervention.
NBAT is standard on the D401 buncher
and an option on other sizes.
All production parameters are set on
the HMI touch screen, in the operator’s
native language.
Maschinenfabrik Niehoff GmbH –
Germany
Fax: +49 9122 977 155
Email:
Website:
Bunching machines from Niehoff
❍ D1001 type double twist buncher from Niehoff
Subsea umbilical contract for Nigerian oilfield