Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2014)

42 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • DECEMBER 2014

GREAT SHIPS OF 2014

I n a word, Pieter Schelte is BIG.

Founded in 1985, Swiss-based All- seas Group S.A. is specialized in offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction. The company em- ploys more than 2,500 people worldwide and operates a fl eet of specialized, in- house designed and developed pipelay and support vessels. The company is known for its daring and imagination in ship design and technological innova- tion. Fittingly, its unoffi cial moto is “No guts, no glory”.

The newest Allseas vessel, Pieter

Schelte, is a huge ship, composed of two super-tanker hulls connected by a wide central work platform or slot, much like a catamaran. It will be able to remove top- sides with one lift and move them to new destinations, meaning a large decommis- sioning job could be done in a fraction of the time it takes to do the job using tradi- tional methods, a feat unheard of in large decommissioning projects. “Ever since we started designing Pieter Schelte long ago, we always knew there was a league of about 13 very large platforms in the

Northern North Sea we could never take out,” said Edward Heerema, Allseas’

Owner and President.

The specifi cations of the Pieter Schelte, are impressive, at 382m (1,253 ft.) long, 124m (407 ft.) wide, with a slot width of 59m (193.5 ft.) and a total width of 124m (407 ft.), making it almost as long as the

Empire State Building is tall and wider than the length of a football fi eld. The ship cost around $3.1 billion to build and is powered by 11.2 MW engines con- nected to 12 Rolls Royce 5.5 MW thrust- ers. The large amount of thrusters is vital in allowing the massive ship to turn in a short radius, compared to its large size.

Pieter Schelte, which is arguably the world’s biggest ship, left the Daewoo shipyard in South Korea on Wednesday,

November 19, and is due to arrive at the

Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands for completion in December. A partnership between Allseas and the Port of Rotter- dam, will allow the Pieter Schelte to be taken to the Maasvlakte 2, an extension of the port, where a special pit has been drained to house the vessel for fi tting out and completion. In the port of Rotter- dam, the 65m (213 ft.) long beams of the

Pieter Schelte Allseas’ New Decommissioning Vessel & PLSV

Pieter Schelte Main Particulars

Shipyard ........................................DSME

Length, o.a. .................1,253 ft. (382m)

Width .............................. 407 ft. (124m)

Lift capacity ............................................ 48,000 tons for topsides using eight sets of horizontal lifting beams, at 6000- tons each, across the slot for removal or installation of topsides. 25,000-tons for jackets, using two tilting lift beams on the stern for lifting and laydown.

Pipelay system ........................................

A 2000-ton capacity S-Lay pipelay sys- tem, able to handle 12m pipe sections under tension using four 500-ton ten- sioners, with a 170m-long stinger.

Power: 12 thrusters, powered by eight main diesel generators, providing a total installed 95MW power.

Speed .............................. 14 knots, max

Accommodation ...............................571

Pieter Schelte at Daewoo shipyard, below and bottom right.

Bottom left, artists rendition with rig topside and legs embarked. Bottom center, Pieter Schelte on sea trials.

Photos: Allseas

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