Readers’ picks: Most attractive subsea topics in 2022

Looking back, 2022 was a pretty active year in the (offshore) energy sector. A good deal of this might be because COVID-19 has stopped being an obstacle to everyday life, but what seems to be for sure is that energy security and energy crisis-related topics stole most of our attention.

Below we bring you the six most read topics in our Subsea market during the year now behind us.

1. Nord Stream

Not a surprise, the Nord Stream incident and everything that happened before and came after took all the spotlight in 2022. Four gas leaks were found on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines linking Russia and Europe in September, which European authorities suspected could be a result of “deliberate actions”.

Operator Nord Stream AG announced in November that it had found technogenic craters at the damaged parts of the gas pipeline during site inspections in the Baltic Sea.

2. McDermott’s J-Lay vessel

The first exception on this energy crisis-focused list is McDermott’s ultra-deepwater J-Lay vessel. Namely, our readers found this news to be the second most interesting in the Subsea market.

To remind, McDermott held the christening ceremony for the converted Amazon vessel in the Port of Rotterdam in June. The vessel underwent a “sophisticated” conversion from a construction vessel into an ultra-deepwater J-Lay vessel as part of the company’s global deepwater subsea strategy.

3. Baltic Pipe

The Baltic Pipe project, connecting the gas systems of Norway, Denmark and Poland and ensuring the security of supply in Europe, takes third place on our list. The project was commissioned with partial capacity on 1 October after the pipelines in the North Sea and in the Little Belt were pressure tested and the gas pipeline was pressurized all the way to the Nybro terminal.

The receiving terminal located at Varde in Western Jutland, Denmark, was put into operation on 1 November, enabling it to receive gas from Norway, which could be sent to Poland via the Danish gas system.

Following three years of construction work, Baltic Pipe reached its full capacity at the end of November.

4. Prysmian’s Leonardo da Vinci

Vessels are always the topic that attracts attention and Prysmian’s next-generation cable-laying vessel (CLV) Leonardo da Vinci is no different. The Italian cabling giant inaugurated the vessel in March.

Said to be the world’s largest cable layer, the 170-meter-long vessel was ordered in April 2018 and was built at Vard’s shipyard in Tulcea in Romania. It completed its first trip to the open sea in June 2021, after which it carried out sea trials.

5. Celtic Interconnector

The final two pieces on our list are interconnections, which are vital for the security of supply. The Celtic Interconnector, a subsea link that will allow the exchange of electricity between Ireland and France, stepped closer to realization in 2022 as it was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála in May.

It was recently announced that Nexans will deliver the cables for the project, with Siemens Energy in charge of delivering the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission technology.

6. NeuConnect

The last hot topic of the year was the NeuConnect interconnector that will link the UK and Germany for the first time. The project reached financial close with a consortium of more than 20 national and international banks and financial institutions in July.

In December it was reported that enabling works and access road works for the energy link are underway, ahead of major construction starting in 2023.

The offshore-energy.biz team wishes you a great 2023 and may we only see good stuff in the news!