Major milestone passed for Nexans’ cable-laying vessel Aurora

Today, the first major milestone in the construction of Nexans’ new DP3 cable laying vessel, the C/S Aurora, was passed with the cutting of the first steel. 

“This is a proud moment for Nexans and an important milestone for the organization. Aurora will play a key role in the installation of our cutting-edge submarine cables to help bring more energy to the world, connect offshore wind farms to the grid, support electrification of offshore petroleum installations and create interconnectors between countries,” said Vincent Dessale, Senior Executive VP Subsea and Land Systems Business Group at Nexans.

The shipbuilding contract of Nexans next flag ship was announced in July 2018, and Ulstein Group CEO, Gunvor Ulstein, expressed Ulstein’s gratitude: “We have a strong organisation with long experience in delivering advanced vessels, and we look forward to a constructive and fruitful cooperation with Nexans in the years to come”. 

The hull is being built at Crist, Poland, while the engineering, outfitting and system integration, equipment preparations, testing, sea trials and finalising will be carried out at Ulstein Verft, Norway. The ST-297 CLV is designed by Skipsteknisk.

The vessel will be outfitted for power cable laying, including bundle laying, cable jointing, repair, cable system protection and trenching. It will be delivered in 2021.