‘Ulisse’ now ready for operation

The Prysmian Group’s new cable lay vessel, named ‘Ulisse’, for offshore cable installation is now ready to begin operations, following an investment of over €20 million (US$22 million).

The ‘Ulisse’ takes the group’s fleet to three – ‘Giulio Verne’, ‘Cable Enterprise’ and ‘Ulisse’.

“Our objective is to have a more comprehensive control of our supply chain by insourcing a greater part of the installation work and to further boost the group’s submarine project execution capabilities with a flexible asset that can both transport submarine cables and perform cable lay and burial installation operations in shallow waters”, said Massimo Battaini, Energy Projects Senior Vice President at Prysmian Group.

Following the purchase from the ship owner EOS, the flat top barge has been converted into an approximately 120-metre by 33-metre cable layer at the PaxOcean shipyard in Singapore.

Renamed ‘Ulisse’, she now has an eight point spread mooring system, enabling her to meet the operating requirements even in harsh environmental conditions.

The vessel will be capable of transporting 7,000 tonnes of cable in a 30-metre diameter carousel, and can be equipped with a carousel loading pick-up arm and a stern mounted cable chute for loading and surface lay operations.

The first project to be executed by ‘Ulisse’ will be the Negros-Panay connection in the Philippines – awarded in December 2014 and worth a total of around €90 million.