Videos: World’s largest construction vessel en route to Norway

For illustration only: The Pioneering Spirit carrying the Shell Brent D Topside of 24,000 Tons. Image source: Allseas

29 May 2018

World’s largest offshore installation vessel Pioneering Spirit has left Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

According to Allseas, the owner of the vessel, the vessel departed the Rotterdam harbor on Sunday afternoon, and will now sail to Norway where it will work for Equinor.

The giant catamaran will work in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea to install the 22,000 ton Johan Sverdrup drilling platform topsides for Equinor.

The 382 meters long and 124 meters wide behemoth had arrived in Rotterdam on May 17, having previously completed the pipelaying work on the Turk Stream gas pipeline project in the Black Sea for Gazprom. The vessel will return to the Black Sea later in 2018 to continue the deep-water pipelay work of Line 2 of the Turk Stream in the third quarter of 2018.

The Pioneering Spirit in the Alexiahaven near Rotterdam, when it just returned on the 17th of May 2018 from the Turkstream Project in the Black Sea and being prepared for the Johan Svedrup Project in Norway. Photo: Aerolin© Photos

As for the Johan Sverdrup work, Allseas secured the contracts in 2016 for installation of three platform topsides on the Johan Sverdrup field

The «Pioneering Spirit» will be installing the topsides for the drilling, processing and living quarter platforms.

Allseas will transfer the topsides to Pioneering Spirit before they are transported to the Johan Sverdrup field. On the field, Pioneering Spirit will install the topside on the steel jackets.

The vessel has a lifting capacity of 48,000 tons. The heaviest lift will be carried out during installation of the processing platform topside that weighs around 26,000 tons.

Worth noting, this is not the first time for the giant vessel to be working in Norway. In fact, the vessel had its first real lifting test there, back in August 2016, when it lifted the 13,500-ton Yme platform in the Norwegian section of the North Sea.

Watch the videos below:

13,500 Tons YME Topside being removed

and the Brent Delta Topside of 24,000 Tons taken off