In October 2006, SAL was appointed by Joint Venture Technip Subsea 7 to engineer and execute the sea transportation of 36 subsea cable reels from its cable factory in Le Trait to the Stybarrow oil field in the Gulf of Exmouth, Australia.

At a water depth of 825 m, the Stybarrow oil field is located in the Exmouth sub-basin, 65 kilometres off the North-West Australian coast. In 2005, the oil field, which is owned by BHP Billiton and Woodside Energy, was approved for development. The deepest oil field development ever undertaken in Australia has an estimated economic field life of 10 years.

In April 2007, SAL’s MV “Annemieke” and “Wiebke” loaded the reels in Le Trait. To maximize on cost effectiveness, the loading had to be performed within a set three day window. The second vessel had to load exactly 30 days afterwards. Each of the two vessels transported 17 and 19 reels respectively into the Gulf of Exmouth. Here, the reels were transferred offshore to Technip’s Deep Pioneer and CSO Venturer. Amongst the contract requirements was the provision of 24 hrs shifts on board of SAL vessels. To respond to these requirements, two masters were on board on each of the vessels. After discharging was completed, SAL vessels brought back the empty reels to Le Trait.

The proximity of the oil field to the marine protected Ningaloo Reef constituted a significant challenge with respect to the comprehensive management of the environmental impact of the project. The installation of a garbage compressor unit specially designed to dispose of waste whilst offshore and an accompanying refrigerated container unit to absorb odour were amongst the mechanisms to protect the surrounding marine environment.

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