Sulmara expands its services with new business line

Subsea specialist Sulmara has launched a new business line, expanding its services with the aim of reducing the risks clients face in subsea operations and helping them meet their net-zero targets.

The new Route Development business line will see the company provide a range of support from the planning and design stage of projects through to the operational phase of subsea cables and pipelines.

According to the company, specialty services including desktop and feasibility studies, seabed mapping and route optimization will allow clients to benefit from Sulmara’s experience, and preparatory works such as UXO identification and removal, boulder relocation and route clearance will help the company expand into new areas of the industry.

Sulmara has also confirmed the appointments of industry veterans Perry Balls as Business Development Director and Alison Lucas Collier as Commercial Director to further enhance the Route Development offering.

“While Sulmara has been able to offer many of the services that sit under the Route Development banner for several years, bringing them all together into a dedicated business line will bring huge benefits to clients as we support them to reduce their carbon footprint. By leveraging survey technology, our new class-leading vessel, our uncrewed technology and the experience of our team, we are able to offer a full-service approach for our clients’ subsea projects,” Balls said.

“We know that organisations are looking for in-house services that are managed internally, processed internally and reported internally, giving them greater confidence in the results, and a simpler path to issuing a contract.”

The news comes after Sulmara signed a three-year deal with Atlantic Offshore to charter the multi-purpose support vessel Ocean Marlin, which will undergo a substantial multi-million-dollar refit.

“The investment in Ocean Marlin and the announcement of this new business line is an indication of the direction Sulmara is going, with the company being the only UK-headquartered organisation offering this full range of services in-house,” Collier said.

“Offering a large vessel with a wide range of capabilities gives us the agility to deliver complex campaigns, and combining Sulmara’s equipment and technology solutions with the significant expertise of our team will ultimately reduce project risk for our clients and help them operate in a more environmentally friendly manner.”

Late last year, Sulmara announced it had placed an order worth $1.6 million with Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) for several of its Wave Adaptive Modular Vessels (WAM-V) USVs and opened a new office in Aberdeenshire to cope with client demand.