Why is it important to involve your cable supplier early in the development of your new product or equipment? At DeRegt we often see customers who have succeeded in developing a great system, but who simply forget to think of the cables involved, or underestimate the complexity of them. You can have two fantastic pieces of equipment, but if you don’t have the right cable to connect them, they are likely to be worthless. Involving your cable supplier at an early stage of the project offers three key benefits:

The annual Offshore Technology Conference provides a great way to catch up with old and new customers and get a feel for what’s happening in offshore oil & gas. As in other years, we joined forces with other Sercel group companies to show the multidisciplinary fit across the group. As well as DeRegt, we had Metrolog and GRC all on one booth at the heart of the exhibition area. A great position to check the pulse. 

The newly developed Sonic Wireline Operated Remote Drill (SWORD) is a system designed to collect samples and geotechnical data from the seabed. The cable needs to combine electro/optic components with a high tensile light-weight strength member, taking into account the rules around rope hoisting/lifting applications. Where conventional steel would be too heavy to cope with the system requirements, the optimal configured strength-member is able to withstand the high tension, at a lower self-weight. This white paper explains how De Regt designed, manufactured and tested a unique cable solution with a strength member made of 8 (!) layers of aramid wires. This is a world-first. 

Every cable we design is bent, stretched, rotated and otherwise tortured as part of our verification process. What we do and how? In the first blog of this two-part mini-series, I outlined why mechanical testing can’t be ignored when it comes to designing high performance cables. 

There are many aspects to designing a dynamic cable (a cable that is meant to move while in use, as happens when towing, for example, or because of wave motion). Things like torque balancing the cable, the load versus elongation properties, the crush resistance or its fatigue life. But behind every great cable there’s always one thing: a rigorous testing regime that involves checking and describing a cable’s mechanical performance and the applications it can be used for – verification and characterization in industry jargon.

Like every company, we’re in business to make a profit. But not at any expense. And certainly not at the expense of our employees, assets, the environment and communities. So how do we work? What principles do we live by? We covered them all in our recent Health and Safety Day. See for yourself by watching the video.

For more information about the HSE principles, please . 

DeRegt works with each individual client to provide the perfect cable solution for their specific requirements. Each cable system by DeRegt is custom-made and this does not only apply to the cables themselves, but the terminations as well. DeRegt is able to design the termination to adapt to specific circumstances and to think outside the box to find the right solution for every situation. From deep undersea to high in the sky, terminations can be grouped into a few types which share similar features.

Aker Solutions came to DeRegt with an unusual request. Aker is responsible for the maintenance of a floating concrete tension-leg platform, installed over a subsea template with 56 well slots. The rig is named Heidrun, and produces oil and gas from a depth of 2,300 metres. It is located about 200 km off the middle of the Norwegian coast. The unusual question was: can you reverse-engineer the same cables from 25 years ago, as a replacement for the next 50? We spoke to Roger Sand at Aker Solutions to find out more about this unique project.

The EU aims to reduce dependency on imports of raw materials. Large quantities of raw materials can be found in deep sea Polymetallic Nodules. Polymetallic Nodules contain relatively high concentrations of Nickel, Copper and Cobalt. Cobalt is especially valuable to harvest since it is used in batteries for electric cars. Nodules occur at any depth, but the highest abundance has been found between 4,000 and 6,000m. How do you harvest these nodules at such a large depth?DeRegt was asked to join an EU funded consortium of 14 companies. Industry, research institutes and service companies across seven different countries joined hands to solve the question on how to harvest them, avoiding serious harm and minimizing the environmental risks.

Buoyancy is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of an immersed object. If an umbilical cable is too light it will pull an ROV up, which makes piloting fiendishly difficult when manoeuvring through offshore structures. If the tether is too heavy it will push the ROV down making delicate work impossible. So how do we make sure we get it just right? Find out how we are able to test down to a single gram, up to 200 bar.