As many as 450 scientists from various institutions across the country participated in the fifth national conference of the Ocean Society of India (OSICON 2017), hosted by the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) at Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala from August 28-30.

The three-day event was based on the theme ‘Ocean and Climate Change’.

The technical sessions focussed on coastal processes and coastal zone management, role of oceans in climate change, ocean technology and acoustics, Indian Ocean variability and monsoon, marine ecosystems and ocean observation, and modelling for climate change scenario.

The conference was inaugurated by Mr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Delegates from all the related Institutions in India such as the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), National Institute of Ocean Technology(NIOT), Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project, Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology, National Institute of Oceanography(NIO), and the IITs participated actively in the conference.

COMACOE was one of sponsors for this prestigious conference and CEO, Mr. Vivek Bansal presented COMACOE’s recent projects such as the Maravanthe Shoreline protection project which is one of India’s earliest large projects to address the critical erosion issue as part of the ADB funded ICZMP program to the august gathering. He explained the leading role COMACOE is playing in these pioneering projects, specially considering the lack of project execution expertise in such projects in India.

In picture above, COMACOE CEO, Mr. Vivek Bansal is being felicitated by current President of Ocean Society of India, Dr. MV Ramana Murthy who is also Head of Ocean Structures department at NIOT, Chennai.

The Sendou power station is a 125-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant in Sendou, Senegal, being developed by Compagnie d’Electricité du Sénégal SA, a consortium whose members include Quantum Group (50+%), Nykomb Synergetics, Vattenfall Power Consult, Maytas, BHEL, BMCE Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa and Comptoir Balland-Brugneaux. The project is located in Sendou, Bagny, Senegal. Royal HaskoningDHV UK Ltd. are the marine consultants to the project.

After several rounds of bidding in an extremely fierce and competitive global bidding environment for over 8 months, COMACOE was finally selected by CES in August 2017 for EPC execution of the Seawater intake/outfall system.

Cooling water requirement for the project will be met through ambient water from sea. The total requirement of seawater for intake system for the project is 1500 cum/hr. The reject water will be discharged in the sea with volume of 1000 cum/hr.

Total scope for COMACOE includes:

• Intake 1 x 1505m of 710/500mm OD HDPE Pipelines
• Outfall 1 x 1169m of 560mm OD HDPE Pipelines

This project presents some exciting challenges for COMACOE and these include a rocky outcrop in the entire offshore portion consisting of boulders calling for special marine spreads, special rock cutting/trenching equipment and techniques since it involves excavation of bolders in the near shore area where access from land is not possible and access using marine equipment is also difficult due to very shallow water depths. This, combined with the fact that a total of only 4 months is available to execute the entire project makes this one of the most challenging projects COMACOE has been entrusted with.

This project award is yet another testimony to COMACOE’s increasing global presence in specialist or niche marine construction market.

Alignment being done for inside shuttering of pump house

Murrum road being constructed over water body for approach to pump house

Levelling of area for HDPE pipe welding activity

In October 2016, COMACOE received the Letter of Acceptance from Government of Karnataka for the ADB funded shoreline protection project for Maravanthe Beach.

This project is part of Karnataka Government’s pioneering, Sustainable Coastal Protection & Management Investment Programme (SCPMIP) which is being funded by Asian Development Bank and is India’s first Integrated Coastal Management Programme. The significance of this project is nation-wide since this is one of the earliest full-blown projects for shoreline protection and most of the earlier pilot projects in Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka have not been too successful, for one reason or the other.

The project site is located in Udupi district. Maravanthe project site is surrounded by Arabian sea on the west and Souparnika river on the east forming a narrow isthmus on which the National Highway 66 (NH-66) running that connects Mumbai in the north to Kochi in Kerala towards the south. The proposed scheme involves protecting a shoreline length of 3.5kms by 15 numbers of shore normal groynes and 9 numbers of T-groynes. Sand redistribution is proposed to enhance the beach width at critical sections.

In picture above, COMACOE Group CEO, Mr. Vivek Bansal exchanging Contract documents with Project Director, Mr. KS Krishna Reddy, KES (MD, Karnataka Road Corporation Dev. Corp. Ltd.) and Jt. Project Director, Mr. Gopal Naik in December, 2016 at Bengaluru.

Dangote Oil Refining Co. (DORC), a division of DANGOTE group, in partnership with FIRST E&P is embarking on an East West Offshore Gas Gathering Pipeline System (EWOGGS) which will transform Nigeria’s energy landscape. It is the single largest gas infrastructure investment in Nigeria’s history for the benefit of domestic gas demand.

The EWOGGS project consists of laying two pipelines of approximately 550km long originating from OML 72/71 area, offshore Bonny Island and terminating at the onshore Dangote Industrial Complex, Lekki, Lagos (Nigeria). Along the route are six (6) planned platform locations.

DANGOTE group is a strategic investor in a number of upstream oil and gas projects in Nigeria and is now at an advanced stage of project development in the downstream sector by building the world’s largest greenfield refinery with production capacity of 20 MMTPA.

After an intense ICB process, DANGOTE has chosen COMACOE as their GeoSciences partners for the project. COMACOE signed the contract with DANGOTE in November 2015. The scope includes Geophysical and Geotechnical surveys (shallow and deep) of the proposed design route, potential platform locations, the surf zone and onshore as part of Pre-Engineering Surveys.
COMACOE have mobilized the resources including specialized marine spread from India and have completed the 1st phase of contract and currently executing the variations orders and potentially the contract value would exceed INR 1.5 Billion.

This project is in line with COMACOE’s strategy to expand its geographical footprint and with this project, COMACOE has further expanded its operations to West Africa and thus added a new feather in its cap.

RSPL is developing a 1500 TPD soda-ash plant along with 50 MW Captive power plant near Kuranga village, Dwarka taluk in Gujarat. COWI India are the owner’s consultant for marine intake and outfall system.

After several rounds of bidding in an extremely fierce and competitive environment, COMACOE was finally selected by RSPL in April 2016 for Engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of the intake/outfall system. Other competitors in the fray included Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Total contract value for COMACOE is approx. INR 260 Cr.

Water requirement for the project (for cooling as well as desalination plant RO/DM plant to produce process water and water for other allied purpose) will be met through seawater from Arabian Sea. The total requirement of seawater for intake system for the project will be 6×105 cum/day (25,000 cum/hr). The reject and effluent will be discharged in the Arabian Sea with volume of 6×105 cum/day (25,000 cum/hr). Design includes 100% redundancy and accordingly caters to 50,000 cum/hr capacities for intake and outfall each.

The marine/offshore scope includes:

• Intake 2 x 695m of 1800mm ID HDPE Pipelines to be laid after dredging/excavation in sea
• Outfall 2 x 1310m of 1800mm ID HDPE Pipelines to be laid after dredging/excavation in sea

This project presents some exciting challenges for COMACOE team and these include a rocky outcrop in the entire offshore portion calling for special marine spreads, special rock cutting/trenching equipment and techniques since it involves excavation of over ___ tonnes of 400 mpa rock. This combined with the fact that a total of about 18 months is available to execute the entire project makes this one of the most challenging projects COMACOE has been entrusted with.