About DECO SUBSEA

March 1996

DECO is founded as a local diving company in Bruges.

December 2000

DECO starts expanding its activities beyond diving services, and also geographically. The first cutting job of a concrete quay wall is successfully completed in the harbor of Damiëtta (Egypt) at small water depths (2-5m). Wall thickness is 500mm and the total length of the cutting line is 900m.

August 2003

DECO completes its first steel pipe cutting job on a project in Germany in water depths up to 34m. The pipe diameter is 500mm and the wall thickness is 15mm.

October 2003

DECO finishes its first hole cutting job in the North Sea (French territorial waters). A total of 169 holes are cut in the hull of the sunken M/V TRICOLOR as part of the salvage operations. The wall thickness is 11-24mm and the water depth is 27m.

March 2004

October 2007

DECO completes its first major pile cutting job in the UK. In total 850 concrete and steel piles were cut by internal and external cutting in a water depth of 34m.

January 2009

DECO expands its activities to the offshore windfarm market when it is contracted to cut cable entry holes into foundation structures for a Belgian windfarm.

April 2011

DECO enters the oil & gas market and completes its first cutting job for an oil pipeline (36”) decommissioning project in the Bahamas. DECO also expands its activities with ROV and specialized dredging services which are first provided for a Belgian windfarm.

July 2012

DECO is involved in its first offshore oil & gas jacket removal project and successfully cuts the 4 foundation piles (diameter 1100mm, wall thickness 20mm, 30° bevel).

August 2013

DECO completes is first monopile cleaning project (80 monopiles, diameter 4.2m, cleaning height 8m) for a Belgian offshore windfarm.

July 2014

DECO provides diving and ROV services on its first well head protection structure installation job. 

April 2016

DECO keeps expanding its markets with a first multi-string conductor cutting project. 

August 2016

Fire destroys DECO’s workshop and offices. Temporary offices and a workshop were set up in the following weeks and reconstruction works started early 2017.

Early 2017

DECO changes it's name into DECO SUBSEA to better reflect the nature of our activities.

August 2017

DECO SUBSEA moves into the newly rebuilt offices and workshop at the old location in Bruges

April 2018

DECO SUBSEA sets a new company depth record by successfully cutting complex section piles (steel/water/steel and steel/grout/steel with a total wall thickness of up to 260mm) for an oil and gas decommissioning project in Norway.

The piles were successfully cut in 95m of water.

September 2018

DECO SUBSEA presents its newly developed and patented cut confirmation system to its clients during the Blue Tech Demo Days.

December 2019

SUBSEA In 2019 DECO carried out high performance dredging and abrasive waterjet cutting services on 15 platform jackets and 10 other offshore structures, marking its busiest year to date in the offshore oil & gas decommissioning market.

July 2020

DECO SUBSEA sets a new company depth record at 130 m, successfully cutting cutting large wall thickness piles using our abrasive waterjet cutting system.

December 2020

DECO SUBSEA ’s track record now comprises 1440+ pile cuts, 850+ hole cuts, 620+ cleaned piles and 750+ dredged piles.

September 2021

DECO SUBSEA has redesigned its conductor cutting tool to our modern standards and developed a multi-string pinning tool. Cutting, multi-string pinning and test lifting successful on all 9 multi-string conductors.

December 2021

In 2021 DECO SUBSEA carried out high performance dredging and abrasive waterjet cutting services on 2 platform jackets, 9 multi string conductors and 6 other offshore structures.

August 2022

DECO SUBSEA has to intervene in several exceptional dredging projects, encountering very hard clay up to 400 kPa and grout plugs up to 18 m length.

September 2022

DECO completes a large OWF soil plug removal job in Taiwan. 188 foundation piles of sand, clay and cobble were successfully dredged and subsequently cleaned.

December 2022

In 2022, DECO SUBSEA carried out heavy-duty dredging and abrasive waterjet cutting on 15 platform jackets, 188 OWF piles, cuts on 15 OWF foundation piles and some 19 other offshore structures. 19 multi-string conductors were cut, pinned and test lifted.

May 2023

Again DECO SUBSEA had to intervene in dredging projects, encountering very hard clay soil plugs over 250 kPa.

November 2023

DECO SUBSEA has successfully completed the first phase of cutting support for a wreck removal project in Malaysia, for which 12 new subsea cutting tools have been manufactured: linear cutting beams and half-shell cutters for rack and pinion systems, X-Y cutters, round hole cutters,... The second phase of the project will restart at the beginning of 2024 and continue until 2024.

December 2023

DECO SUBSEA is completing the dredging of soil plugs of 93 OWF foundation piles in Taiwan. Subsequent cleaning and hard stopper cutting is underway and will continue until 2024.

December 2023

In 2023 DECO SUBSEA carried out high performance dredging and abrasive waterjet cutting services on 14 platform jackets, 93 OWF piles, cuts on 15 OWF foundation piles and some 19 other offshore structures.

6 multi-string conductors were cut, pinned and test lifted.

De-scaling of several NORM contaminated caissons and production lines.

December 2024

2024 was very busy with soil plug removal and abrasive water jet cutting on 20 platform jackets, cutting and removal of 900 m of sheet piles, removal of 30" conductors and a lot of stiff clay and grout dredging.

During the year, DECO Subsea achieved new operational depths of 170 meters, completing soil plug removal and abrasive water jet cutting at this record depth.

A major highlight was the successful deployment of our new hybrid soil plug removal tool, designed to enhance production in high-strength seabed materials. The tool achieved outstanding results in 600+ kPa undrained shear strength (USS) clay, confirming its capability for future high-production soil plug removal projects.

June 2025

A client asked help to save a 2500 mm WT 70 subsea foundation pile,  to extremely tight tolerances — within ±10 mm elevation and 0.5° of the horizontal plane.

To meet these demanding specifications, we modified an existing cutting tool.The operation exceeded client requirements, achieving 0.46 mm elevation variance and 0.061° deviation from the horizontal plane

This level of accuracy demonstrates DECO Subsea’s capability in high-precision subsea cutting.

A new Least Squares (LSQ) calculation method was developed and implemented to handle micro-dimension accuracy.