Pioneering Spirit (previously named Pieter Schelte) is the world's largest construction vessel, designed for the single-lift installation and removal of large oil and gas platforms and the installation of record-weight pipelines.
Designed entirely in-house by Swiss-based Allseas Group, the 382 m long, 124 m wide vessel was built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (2011-14) at a cost of EUR2.6 billion (US$3 billion), and commenced offshore operations in August 2016.
The single lift of Shell's 24,200 t Brent Delta platform topsides by Pioneering Spirit in April 2017 marked the word's heaviest offshore lift.
In June 2017, Pioneering Spirit commenced pipelay for the first line of SouthStream Transport B.V's dual 930-km TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea.
Allseas has committed to building an even larger version of the same design, Amazing Grace, the delivery of which is planned for 2022.
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Development history
Allseas first declared its intention to build a vessel capable of lifting entire platforms in 1987. The initial idea featured two rigidly connected, self-propelled supertankers, with a large slot at the bows to install platform topsides in one piece. Early designs featured a flotation and ballasting system and active motion compensation system to facilitate a controlled transfer of topsides weight from the vessel to a platform substructure. Allseas developed the original idea to include steel jacket installation, jackets and topsides removal and rigid pipelay capabilities.
The emphasis switched from the conversion of two existing tankers to a new-build hull in 2004. The decision was prompted by a lack of suitable vessels to convert, the lower costs associated with a new-build and the need to house sophisticated equipment - such as a dynamic positioning system - in the hull. Although the design still featured a U-shaped slot, the word "catamaran" no longer applied.
Twenty years after the original idea was conceived, in 2007 Allseas announced plans to build Pieter Schelte, a twin-hulled platform installation / decommissioning and pipelay vessel. Named after the offshore pioneer Pieter Schelte (father of the Allseas' owner and founder Edward Heerema), the design featured a lifting system at its bow for lifting platform topsides up to 48,000 t and a lifting system at its stern for lifting steel jackets up to 25,000 t. The design also included pipelay equipment to handle pipe diameters ranging from 6 - 68 inches at water depths exceeding 4000 m (13,100 ft.).
Allseas placed orders for machinery, including generators and thrusters, in 2007 and for the high-tensile steel for the lifting systems in 2008. However, the company was forced to postpone the building schedule as the global financial crisis weakened funding and delayed the awarding of the hull construction contract. Finnish engineering company Deltamarin performed detail engineering in 2009. Allseas signed the main construction contract with South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd in June 2010.
Midway through the build, Allseas decided to widen the vessel by 6.75 m in order to increase the clearance between the bows and the legs of large platforms. The overall width was increased from 117 m to 124 m, and the slot width from 52 m to 59 m. The vessel departed Daewoo in November 2014 and arrived at the Maasvlakte 2, Port of Rotterdam, for completion and commissioning on January 8, 2015. Pioneering Spirit left Rotterdam on 6 August 2016.
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Specification
Pioneering Spirit is the world's largest vessel, in terms of its gross tonnage (403,342 gt), breadth (123.75 m / 406 ft.), and displacement (1,000,000 t).
With a 48,000 t topside lift capacity, the vessel operates as a semi-submersible, ballasting to lower, and install the payload, or de-ballasting to raise and remove the payload. Topsides are lifted using eight sets of horizontal lifting beams.
Two tilting lift beams for the installation or removal of steel jackets, up to 22,500 t in weight, will be located at the vessel's stern. A 5000 t special purpose crane is available for additional lifts for jacket and topsides installation such as pile handling and bridge installation.
The vessel is equipped with eight, 20-cylinder (20V32/44CR) MAN 11,200 kW diesel generators providing a total installed power of 95 MW, driving 12 Rolls-Royce azimuth thrusters for dynamic positioning (DP3) and for propulsion. The vessel's maximum speed is 14 knots. The accommodation has room for 571 persons in two-berth cabins.
Early projects
Pioneering Spirit set a world offshore lifting record with its first commercial lift, removal of Repsol's 13,500 t Yme mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) on August 22, 2016. Located in the Yme field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, approximately 100 km west of Stavanger, the MOPU was a jack-up type platform standing on three, 3.5 m diameter steel legs. The decision to remove the platform was made in 2013, and the contract for the removal of the topsides was subsequently awarded to Allseas.
On April 28, 2017 Pioneering Spirit set a new offshore lift record with the single-lift removal of Shell's 24,200 t Brent Delta topsides. Located in the Brent field, approximately 186 km (116 mi) off the northeast coast of Shetland, the iconic platform sat on a three-legged gravity-based structure in 140 m (460 ft) of water. The vessel delivered the topsides to Able UK's Seaton Port yard, Teesside, for disposal.
Pioneering Spirit's started its first pipelay job, installation of the offshore section of the TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea, in June 2017. Starting from the Russian coast near the town of Anapa, the 930-km, 32-inch diameter twin-pipeline will traverse the Black Sea at depths as low as 2200 m and emerge onshore in Turkey's Thrace region.
In 2018 and 2019 the vessel is scheduled to install three platform topsides on Statoil's Johan Sverdrup project in Norwegian waters, in 2018 and 2019. Pioneering Spirit will return to the Brent field to remove the Bravo and Alpha topsides, along with the Alpha steel jacket, in 2019 and 2020.
Naming controversy
Originally named Pieter Schelte after the engineer Pieter Schelte Heerema (1908 - 1981), the father of Allseas' owner Edward Heerema, on February 9, 2015 Allseas announced that the vessel name would change to Pioneering Spirit.
The original name caused a controversy due to Pieter Schelte Heerema's service in the Waffen-SS during World War II, prior to August 1943. Pieter Schelte Heerema subsequently disappeared and joined the resistance in the Netherlands. After the war, he was arrested and sentenced to jail for three years, because of links to a Dutch company that conscripted slave labourers for the Nazi war effort, according to the Dutch National Institute for War Documentation. The court later released him after one and a half years, because of his "very important services to the resistance between August 1943 and March 1944."
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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