Australian contractor Matrix Composites & Engineering (Matrix) has sealed a deal with Subsea 7 to supply subsea installation buoyancy equipment for the latter’s heavy lift tie-in package on Chevron’s Gorgon project offshore Western Australia.

Matrix will supply subsea installation buoyancy ranging from 0.5t-10t for the project, with the buoyancy equipment to help facilitate tie-in operations in water depths of up to 1,350 m (4,429 ft). The equipment will be manufactured in-house at Matrix’s new 215,278 sq ft (20,000 sq m) composites syntactic foam plant in Henderson, Western Australia.

The associated tooling and through members will be manufactured at Matrix Offshore Services & Engineering (MOSE), the group’s specialist equipment services and heavy engineering division in Malaga, WA.

Matrix is currently the only manufacturer of subsea buoyancy systems in Australia and Asia, it added, and operates out of the world’s largest and most technically advanced composite syntactic foam plant.