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Wednesday 25th November 2020
The Atlantic Cable Maintenance Agreement (ACMA) members and their suppliers Global Marine and Orange Marine are pleased to announce the extension of the ACMA 2017 Agreement to the end of December 2025.
The ACMA Chairman Alasdair Wilkie (Digicel) said: “I am very pleased that it has been possible to agree terms and conditions with the Agreement cable ship suppliers and to ensure that the ACMA region will continue to receive a high level of maintenance cover with the Agreement’s dedicated repair vessels. This is particularly key given the ongoing pandemic and the higher than ever dependence on the digital economy and the enabling connectivity provided by submarine cables. I also thank the suppliers, in particular their marine staff, for their continuing high level of performance despite the many recent pandemic restrictions and challenges faced by the shipping industry globally.”
Bruce Neilson-Watts MD at Global Marine added: “It is a real pleasure to agree on this extension to provide ongoing services to the ACMA members until 2025. Global Marine is proud of its association and decade-long, successful relationship with the ACMA parties. I particularly welcome the flexibility shown in allowing windfarm owners to partner with both Global Marine and the agreement members to undertake inter-array replacement and string repairs. As governments move to an increasingly green agenda in the face of climate change, we’re experiencing huge developments in offshore wind and renewables, so this is proving to be an ever-more valuable service.”
Didier Dillard CEO of Orange Marine said: “I am very pleased and proud that Orange Marine is continuing its more than 35 year association with ACMA. We remain passionate about providing a continued high-level maintenance service offering in the Atlantic area with ACMA’s newest vessel the CS Pierre De Fermat. Looking to the future, Orange Marine remains committed to working flexibly and collaboratively with all regions cable owners and their representatives to ensure a stable and secure subsea network.”
About the ACMA
The ACMA is a non-profit cooperative subsea maintenance agreement consisting of greater than 60 members. ACMA members are companies responsible for the operations and maintenance of undersea communications and power cables, as well as Oil & Gas Platform operators, in the Atlantic, North Sea and Southeastern Pacific Ocean.
A key member benefit is that the entire ACMA maintenance operation: ships, ROVs, technical specialists, is under independent contract to dedicated third-party service providers, backed up with formal key performance indicators, such as cableship mobilization, spares loading and operational timings. ACMA members also benefit from a quality and efficient service provided by an independent fleet with its facilities dedicated to the sole use of the ACMA members.
With no pressure to show a profit on such activities, ACMA is a genuinely cooperative organisation, concentrating solely on the interests of its members.
About Global Marine
Global Marine is a market leader in subsea fibre optic cable installation and maintenance solutions to the telecoms and oil & gas sectors, and is part of the Global Marine Group, alongside Global Offshore, CWind and OceanIQ® .
Global Marine has played a pioneering role in the development of undersea cable repair and maintenance solutions for well over a century, having performed approximately 33 percent of all maintenance operations on fibre optic cables globally. The Company is a founding and current member of the Universal Joint Consortium, an international cross-industry body supporting the manufacturers and consumers of Universal Joint and Universal Coupling technology. Global Marine remains at the forefront of this vital part of the industry through its well-renowned training school utilised by many of the key telecoms installation and maintenance companies and cable manufacturers around the world.
About Orange Marine
The Submarine Cable Division of the French Postal and Telecommunications Ministry, active since the end of the 19th century, became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Orange Group in 1999 and took the name of Orange Marine in 2013. Orange Marine together with its sister company Elettra is specialized in marine activities related to submarine cables, from the design and engineering phase up to the installation of regional or intercontinental links and the maintenance of existing cables.
Their six cable ships have laid more than 220,000 km of optical fiber cables all around the world and have carried out nearly 550 repairs.
