Jan De Nul has placed an order for an additional trenching support vessel to be built by China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI).
The vessel will be a near-identical sister of Isambard K. Brunel, which is already under construction at CMHI. Design work on the vessels was undertaken by Norway's Ulstein Design and Solutions.
Like all recent vessels of Jan De Nul, she will be equipped with technology that the company said can filter up to 99 per cent of nanoparticles from exhaust gases and reduce the amount of polluting substances.
The vessel will be fitted with engines can run on biofuel. In addition, the vessel and its engines can be configured for future operation on methanol.
The vessel's subsea trenching robot will be operated from the deck and will be able to bury cables up to five metres deep.
With this latest order, Jan De Nul currently has five vessels under construction for the installation and protection of subsea energy cables. These include the cable-laying vessels vessels Fleeming Jenkin and William Thomson, a rock installation vessel to protect the cables, and now two vessels designed to safely bury cables in the seabed.
