SUBSEA INSTALLATIONS: Cable reel specialist focusing on increased load capacity
Svenssons Wire and Cable Packaging aims to supply umbilical and power cable reels for all offshore requirements. Among the company’s recent and current references are BP’s Thunder Horse project in the Gulf of Mexico, Statoil’s Snøhvit in the Barents Sea, Total’s Rosa off Angola, and a project offshore Thailand. Its regular customers include most leading umbilical manufacturers.
Svenssons supplies the offshore market with both steel reels, like this 9.2 m umbilical reel, and wooden reels
With production now outsourced to a Baltic shipyard, Svenssons is specializing increasingly on engineering, quality assurance and documentation, according to managing director Erik Johansson. The company is certified to ISO 9001 and the ISO 14001 environmental standard. It has invested in the latest 3D CAD design software, and much of its work is done using the Inventor program.
Products include steel reels with diameters ranging from 4.5m to 9.2m. A 9.2m reel weighing 50 tonnes can carry a load of 350 tonnes. The limit on reel size is set by the lay-vessel capacity, but the company has received enquiries for offshore reels of up to 14m, capable of taking loads up to 500 tonnes, Johansson says. Svenssons also supplies lifting equipment for the reels, such as spreader bars.
While some contractors own their own reels, which they re-use, many reels are owned by the project operator and disposed of following project implementation. Johansson sees greater scope for reusing such reels, particularly at a time of high steel prices. One possibility would be for Svenssons to retain ownership and rent reels out for individual projects.
He recalls one occasion where one of the company’s reels was re-used after the company re-issued the original documentation. There are no official requirements concerning reuse, he says - it is up to the customer involved to satisfy itself that a reel it proposes reusing is fit for purpose
Svenssons also makes wooden reels, some for the offshore industry. On one occasion the company supplied an order for several hundred such reels for the transport of steel tube for umbilicals. In this case the drums were made with steel cores, leading to substantial cost savings.
For more information contact Erik Johansson, Svenssons Wire and Cable Packaging. Tel +46 346 569 03, fax +46 346 569 09,[email protected], www.svenssongroup.se
