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Cable Route Survey

OceanIQ’s experienced survey team manages marine surveys on behalf of customers; from concept and scoping, throughout the execution phase and delivering robust reporting to enable informed decision making on future projects, or remedial action to existing systems.

Why choose OceanIQ?

As part of the Global Marine Group, OceanIQ has decades of experience in scoping, managing, delivering and analysing data from survey projects, using multiple survey techniques. OceanIQ’s heritage enables us to combine survey knowledge with precise marine installation requirements, allowing us to deliver robust solutions to our clients. This ultimately means that subsea cable integrity always remains the core focus.

 

What makes OceanIQ unique?

  • We approach interpreting survey data as professional specialists in installation and maintenance – which brings huge advantages, resulting in a more seamless process
  • Our Route Engineers have access to extensive data, such as our comprehensive cable fault database which builds a robust picture, bringing peace of mind to clients
  • The team has delivered 17 major surveys in the last decade for telecoms, offshore wind, utilities and oil & gas customers

 

What do we do?

Using the most advanced techniques and equipment, OceanIQ will deliver a tailored survey solution using a combination of geophysical tools – such as echosounders, sonar, sub-bottom profilers, and magnetometers, combined with geotechnical sampling – to obtain a comprehensive set of data which is charted and incorporated into our cable routing GeoCable® GIS software, and from which informed assessments can be made on cable routing.

We embrace innovative changes as a matter of course and increasingly use aerial drones and other unmanned platforms such as AUVs and ASVs, which can bring cost and technical advantages while lowering the survey’s carbon footprint too.

On-site OceanIQ® survey representatives are relied upon to ensure that survey works meet the company’s exacting survey specifications, and to undertake in-field routing and engineering decisions when required.

The survey data is interpreted and used to refine the cable route within the survey corridor. Once the data is collated, we complete burial assessments which help determine the best burial tools and cable protection measures for the system. At all stages, our clients benefit from the knowledge and experience we have built over many decades as a subsea cable installation and maintenance provider.

Depending on the hazard and risk levels, there is sometimes a need to include a UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) survey at the marine survey stage and OceaniQ® has successfully completed UXO surveys for several projects in recent years.

How we deliver our services?

If you have any questions on our Cable Route Survey Services, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help any way we can.

Examples of Our Work

Better understanding of subsea environments for fibre optic and power cable installations

Pentland Firth, Scotland | Survey works for new power cable installation

Our survey contractors used an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ‘drone’ and an Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV). OceaniQ’s® adoption of these innovative solutions meant that a diver swim survey was not needed, which reduced the health and safety risk to the project and improved the resulting survey deliverables ahead of a new cable installation.

Management of the cable route survey, burial assessment and UXO survey for two cables connecting the west coast of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

BT Scotland N.Ireland 3 & 4

OceaniQ® completed this survey across a particularly challenging marine seabed environment. Because of our careful approach to UXO risk management, we successfully achieved a safe route through the Beaufort Dyke UXO dumping ground, while ensuring that the cable was installable, secure, and maintainable over its design life. UXO gradiometer arrays were used along with visual surveys to overcome the UXO risks offshore. On land, we used UXO drones to achieve full coverage over the intertidal area. Our careful specification of the survey allowed us to complete an incredibly detailed boulder assessment to maximise the burial along the route, which a more conventional survey spec would not have achieved.

Cable route surveys and burial assessments for over 200km of inter-platform oil and gas connections

Tampnet projects, North Sea

These surveys, across multiple projects with Tampnet, enable high bandwidth communications to major oil and gas operators on their offshore platforms and serve as the backbone for Tampnet’s 4G telecoms network in the North Sea. Our work in designing the survey specification, management and delivery of the surveys made sure that the existing Oil and Gas infrastructure was accurately mapped. Our decision to include ROVs meant that the pipeline and other cables could be surveyed in additional detail so that safe and acceptable crossing designs could be engineered without additional work being needed.

OUR SERVICES

Take a look at our other Cable Route Planning Services

Our Latest OceanIQ and Global Marine Group News

Determining reliable cable ampacities for marine high voltage cables.
Posted: 11/03/2025

Determining reliable cable ampacities for marine high voltage cables.

Determining reliable cable ampacities for marine High Voltage Cables is currently the subject of significant industry and academic reassessment in order to optimise the operation (ampacity), design (cross-sectional area) and subsequent efficiency, longevity, CAPEX and profitability of both submarine power cables and their dependencies (Enescu et...