Offshore engineering specialist Osbit has been awarded a contract by Jan De Nul Group to design and build a next-generation shallow-water trencher for cable burial operations.

The project follows the delivery of Osbit’s previous trencher, Swordfish, which has been operating in the field for Jan De Nul since 2022.

Designed to operate both on land and subsea, the new lightweight trencher will support shallow-water cable burial campaigns, with burial capability of up to five metres below the seabed.

The machine uses a surface-fed water system to minimise overall system weight while retaining scope for future upgrades and deeper-water campaigns.

Its modular construction allows the trencher to be dismantled into containerised sections for transportation and mobilisation between sites. Interchangeable swords and depressor options will also allow the system to be adapted for different burial depths, cable configurations and project requirements.

The surface-fed jetting trencher has been designed to provide a compact and fully containerisable system while retaining the flexibility to operate across multiple campaigns.

The full design and build programme is scheduled ahead of the agreed 96-week schedule, with delivery planned for late 2026 and commercial operations expected to begin in 2027.

David Foster, Project Manager at Osbit, comments:

“This project is the result of many months of close collaboration with Jan De Nul. Building on the success of the previous trencher project gave both teams a strong foundation and a clear understanding of the operational challenges the equipment needs to solve.

“We have focused on creating a highly adaptable and future-ready system that can support a wide range of offshore cable burial campaigns while remaining lightweight, modular and easy to mobilise. Through close collaboration with the client and a deep understanding of the environments in which the equipment will operate, we have been able to develop a robust and highly versatile solution.”