Flemish company DEME hired to construct pipeline project off the coast of Australia

Flanders based dredging and offshore specialist DEME, in a joint venture with Dutch company Van Oord, has been awarded a contract for the 'Darwin Pipeline Duplication Project' in North Australia. The joint venture is responsible for supporting the installation of the pipeline in shallow waters of the Northern Territory. The value of the contract for DEME is between €50 and €150 million, the company announced on Monday morning.

DEME and Van Oord will dig trenches, pull the pipeline and prepare the shore crossing at the landing site near the LNG production site in Darwin. They will also carry out rock placement works to protect the pipeline.

"DEME is delighted to be returning to Australia," said Hugo Bouvy, managing director at DEME Offshore. "We already have extensive experience with major projects such as Wheatstone and Gladstone. There, too, we worked successfully with Van Oord."

For this project, a cutter suction dredger, a trailing suction hopper dredger and a backhoe (type of excavator) will be deployed, in addition to a fallpipe vessel for the rock dumping works and a linear puller for pulling the pipeline. The project preparation starts immediately.

(TOM)

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A 2009 dredging project by Deme and Jan De Nul in Port Hedland, Australia. - © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM