Jan De Nul is extending its offshore fleet with three water injection dredgers (WID).
The company recently purchased three offshore supply vessels and ordered the Singaporean shipyard to convert them into seagoing WIDs.
All the vessels will be equipped for seabed levelling, for lowering offshore wind farm cables and other installation services in offshore wind and oil and gas.
The WIDs are smaller than traditional dredgers and have dynamic positioning and swell compensation. Diesel-electric drivers reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Giovanni Venturi is the first out of three to be delivered by PaxOcean Shipyard and will be mobilised to its first project in Argentina.
The other two, Henri Pitot and Henry Darcy, are in the process of being converted and will be delivered later this year.
The vessels are fitted with power jetting systems used for the low-pressure injection of water into sediments.
The sediment fluidizes and moves, just above the seabed, through natural sediment streams, unlike traditional dredging methods where sediment is mechanically transported. The process does not impact overlying water layers.
Since the sediment does not need to be transported by means of a hopper, barge or pipeline, water injection dredging is also a more cost-effective technique.