Ulstein Lays Nexans Aurora Keel

Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein has recently held the keel laying ceremony of the cable laying vessel Nexans Aurora.

Keel laying marks the start of assembling the grand blocks of a newbuild vessel, destined for the installation of subsea cables by Nexans.

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

CLV Nexans Aurora measures 149.9 meters in length, 31 meters in the beam and has a dead weight of 17,000 tones.

“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 in Nexans, on the occasion of the steel cutting ceremony in February 2019.

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