CRP Subsea wins contract for Middle East submarine HVDC project

England-based CRP Subsea, part of AIS, has secured a contract to deliver cable protection services for an HVDC submarine cable project offshore United Arab Emirates in the Arabian Gulf.

More than 6 kilometers of Uraduct will be used at the cable crossings and platform approaches on the HVDC system, set to protect the cables from mechanical damage including crushing, abrasion and over-bending.

The engineering phase will begin imminently at CRP Subsea’s production facility in the North West of England. Manufacturing activities are scheduled to start this summer, with final delivery expected by the end of the year.

According to CRP Subsea, the contract is sizeable and was secured with a prominent engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contractor.

The company noted that it had provided three bespoke Uraduct designs for the project, two of which were for the bundled Uraduct configuration, giving the benefit of combining two or more cables into one piece of Uraduct, resulting in cost savings for the customer in terms of product and installation expenses.

“We are thrilled that our market-leading Uraduct® has been chosen for this HVDC submarine cable project,“ said Ben Stubbens, Sales Team Manager at CRP Subsea.

“We are honoured to be part of such an innovative project that aims to improve energy efficiency as well as minimise environmental emissions.”

The purpose of the HVDC project is to deliver electricity from the onshore grid network to two offshore production facilities. The primary objective is to reduce the use of gas turbine generators (GTGs). By doing so, the project seeks to increase energy efficiency, as well as reduce environmental emissions.

To remind, it was reported at the end of 2021 that the Middle East will be getting its first submarine HVDC network when two United Arab Emirates-controlled oil and gas giants revealed they were developing a $3.6 billion project to decarbonize offshore operations as part of their efforts to reach net-zero goals by 2050.

With a capacity of 3.2 GW, the Lighting project will be the most powerful power-from-shore solution in the MENA region so far, as well as the first HVDC power-from-shore solution outside Norwegian waters.

Prysmian Group is in charge of the design, supply, assembling and testing of a symmetrical monopole system consisting of four HVDC 320 kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation for the project.