Successful Permitting Allowed for Submarine Cable Installation

The Angola Cable’s South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) was successfully completed with the 21 February 2018 cable landing in Fortaleza, Brazil, after traversing 6,200 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean from Sangano, Angola. Angola Cables reports that SACS, once operational in the third quarter of 2018, will provide a communication capacity of at least 40 Tb/s—opening up the first direct link between Latin America and Africa in the southern hemisphere. The landing ceremony at Praia do Futuro beach, attended by government and Angola Cables representatives, celebrated the opening of the global digital market and enhanced connectivity between Latin America and Africa and the future major enhancement of global telecommunications.

Through Ocean Specialists, Inc. (OSI), CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. (CSA) teamed with their affiliate Brazil office CSA Ciências Oceânicas (CSACO) to successfully acquire all marine and coastal environmental permits for the SACS project within the challenging timeframe required by Angola Cables. CSA and CSACO carefully negotiated and managed the complicated permit application requirements of regulatory authorities in both Fortaleza and Sangano and received crossing approvals with all associated seabed users across the Atlantic Ocean. The permitting process began in mid-2016, with CSA Team members visiting the landing sites and attending pre-application meetings with regulatory authorities. Based on a robust literature and geospatial data search, comprehensive environmental impact studies were prepared that carefully assessed environmental conditions along the SACS route and at each landing. These studies were then combined with marine route survey data to ensure the SACS route design avoided any sensitive marine environments.

Through an extensive process of submittals, reviews, and revisions, environmental permits were secured in timely manner, eliminating costly regulatory delays to allow the cable installation to occur without project schedule impacts. Stakeholder and public outreach began just prior to cable installation and continued through completion. Stakeholders (local business owners, the artisanal fishing community, recreational beachgoers, recreational fisherman, surfers, and the general public) were engaged and informed about the SACS project through public announcements, poster and flyer distribution, and public meetings and presentations held near the landing site.