UTEC Survey (Australia) said that it has been awarded a pipelay support survey and positioning contract in Australia. The contract was awarded to UTEC by Saipem and involves the provision of offshore survey and positioning services during the pre-lay, lay and post-lay installation of a 42-inch-diameter, 889 kilometre long pipeline which will connect the Ichthys LNG Project’s offshore central processing facility situated some 200km off the coast of Western Australia with its onshore gas processing plant near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

To be installed in water depths up to 275 meters, the pipeline is the longest subsea gas pipeline in the Southern hemisphere and the fifth longest in the world.

Offshore activity will commence in May 2014 and it will see UTEC providing survey and positioning services on a range of Saipem-owned and chartered vessels. Pre-lay survey works will be carried out from the Go Explorer, which will also provide touch-down monitoring support to the pipelay barges. The Semac-1 will start pipelay at the Darwin end and lay approximately 150km of the 42-inch pipe before Saipem’s fourth generation pipelay vessel Castorone takes over to complete the pipelay out to the Ichthys field.