LVRTC Initiates Recovery of Costs for Submarine Optical Cable Damage Repairs

The State Joint Stock Company Latvian State Radio and Television Center (hereinafter – LVRTC) has calculated the losses incurred due to the damage of the undersea optical fiber cable owned by LVRTC in the Baltic Sea on January 26, and the subsequent repair works. The total amount of losses is just under half a million euros and includes cable repair costs, expenses for LVRTC and contracted personnel, as well as costs related to the services that could not be provided to clients.

All of these expenses were covered using LVRTC’s own financial resources, and this month the company has initiated the process of recovering the losses from the Bulgarian company that owns the ship Vezhen.

“We consider the amount of damages as reasonable and lower than we had initially estimated. The largest portion of the costs is associated with hiring the vessel and the crew’s work at sea. Weather conditions, the cable’s installation method, and the specifics of the seabed made the operations extremely difficult. Experts had to figure out how to retrieve the damaged cable ends from a clay seabed over 100 meters deep, noting that the cable had been buried under the clay for nearly 20 years. However, it should be emphasized that the persistence, professionalism, and determination of these specialists overcame the challenges posed by the weather, seabed conditions, and cable installation specifics.

The compact but highly skilled team not only completed the work successfully, but also, during the process, engineers designed new equipment based on expert observations at sea and modified existing tools to retrieve the cable. This made it possible to restore the shortest communication route from Latvia to the Nordic countries in the shortest possible time while keeping costs as low as possible,” noted LVRTC Chairman of the Board Ģirts Ozols.

If the Bulgarian shipping company does not agree to compensate the damages, LVRTC may take the case to court. Meanwhile, the police investigation into the incident is ongoing as part of a criminal case.