The scheduled entry onto the offshore market this summer of Allseas’ instantly iconic giant single-lift vessel Pioneering Spirit has been eagerly anticipated. With many of the latest offshore deepwater platforms growing in size and weight as their topsides become ever-more complicated and with a large number of existing installations great and small in the North Sea and further afield needing to be removed and taken ashore for dismantling in the coming years, this innovative vessel is arriving at what many believe is just the right time.

The result of a twin-hulled vision first hatched in the 1980s by Pieter Schelte Heerema, the father of Allseas’ president Edward Heerema, it has taken until now for the novel concept to become reality. But with the vessel currently in Rotterdam undergoing final outfitting before it begins its first job in the North Sea this summer, it is expected to be heavily utilized.

Allseas stated that the vessel—which has cost about $2 billion to build—encompasses all the innovations that have been developed by the company over the last 30 years. Extreme loading requirements were needed on many elements of the vessel, leading to high steel grades and heavy plate thicknesses. Built at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s yard in Okpo, South Korea, after being ordered in 2010, the 403,342-gross tonnage dynamically positioned craft will carry out its maiden job in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, removing the 15,000-mt Yme platform deck for field operator Talisman Energy. It also is contracted to work on the decommissioning of Shell’s Brent Field platforms in the U.K. sector, where it will remove decks and a jacket structure.

Designed specifically for carrying out the heavy single-lift installation and removal of large platforms as well as the installation of subsea pipelines, it is a huge vessel. Measuring 382 m (1,253 ft) in length (excluding the tilting lift beam and stinger) and 117 m (384 ft) wide, it has a topsides lift capacity of 48,000 mt and a jacket lift capacity of 25,000 mt. It is the topsides lift system beams that are being installed on the bow of the ship in Rotterdam.

The pipelay tension capacity will be 2,000 mt, doubling the capacity of the company’s Solitaire vessel and surpassing her as the world’s largest pipelay vessel. It will be equipped with six welding and coating stations.

Allseas also has plans to build a second single-lift vessel larger than the Pioneering Spirit, which it says will be delivered in 2020 and also is aimed at the installation and removal of the largest existing and future platforms, up to a total of 77,000 mt.

Both vessels are expected to be used initially mostly in northwest Europe but are capable of working in most offshore environments.

Vessel Facts

Sector: Marine Construction

Owner: Allseas

Name: Pioneering Spirit

Vessel Design: Allseas

Yard Built: Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering

First Operations: Second-quarter 2015 onward

Size (length/beam) overall: 477 m by 124 m (1,565 ft by 407 ft)

Topsides Lift Capacity: 48,000 mt

Jacket Lift Capacity: 25,000 mt

Stinger Length: 210 m (690 ft)

Maximum Speed: 14 knots

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