Page 20: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2022)

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CTO IN FOCUS EDWARD HEEREMA, ALLSEAS

D C – UTCH OURAGE with Single-minded Focus

Our CTO this month is something of an honorary CTO. Edward Heerema is founder and president of Allseas, which brought the world’s largest construction vessel, Pioneering Spirit, to the market. The company, which also brought innovation to the pipelay sector, has added its latest trick to Pioneering Spirit – its jacket lift system. But Allseas is also targeting deepsea mining and has its sights on the offshore wind market.

Elaine Maslin caught up with Edward Heerema to ? nd out more. he ? rst time I met Edward Heerema was at March 2022, the vessel has lifted a total of 240,000 tons the company’s of? ces in Delft, in the Nether- of topsides in decommissioning and installation projects. lands. As a Brit, I was used to not getting milk This year will be a bumper year for the ship. She’s sched- with my cup of tea in Dutch of? ces (or KLM uled to lift and transport a record 125,000 tons of platform ? ights). But, as an international company, All- structures, using both its topsides and jacket lift systems.

T seas was used to my kind and milk was offered. Since her launch, she’s also laid 4,200 km of 32-48 inch

We were there to discuss progress of the 382m-long pipeline in 41 to 2,200 m water depth. heavy lift and pipelay mega vessel Pioneering Spirit. Delays in the shipbuilding process and a decision to increase the AN ESTABLISHED TOOL IN THE MARKET 48,000-tonne topside lift vessel’s already substantial width to Pioneering Spirit is very much now a well-established 124m (to accommodate even more platforms) had put the tool. “When we clarify with clients a contract or have to be project behind schedule. It was an immense undertaking that on a bid list, there are no longer any more questions about appeared to some like a massive gamble. Would she work? whether she will work,” Edward says. “She has done every

With a multi-billion price-tag, it couldn’t afford not to. project in a magni? cent way. Maybe we have been lucky,

What’s happened since both demonstrates Allseas’ sin- because we have had hardly any weather down time, but gle-minded focus, but also its willingness to alter plans and because the vessel is so enormous it moves very little in ? ex to demands, from adapting or renaming Pioneering the waves and then the motion compensation system takes

Spirit to offering the Brit some milk in her tea. care of the rest. Her workability has been great and she has

Edward Heerema is also someone who has con? dence in never disappointed us.” engineering, whether that’s in pipelaying on dynamic posi- Of course, the ? rst big lift, Brent Delta in 2017, was a tioning, complex single-lift motion compensation systems heart-stopping moment. “That was the ? rst really big job,” or deepwater pipelay, and now also deepsea mining and says Edward. “The ? rst job, the Yme removal (13,500 installing future up to 20 MW offshore wind turbines. For tons) for Repsol in 2016, was very special. We were all re- him and Allseas, the engineering involved in Pioneering ally nervous that the system wouldn’t work. Rationally, we

Spirit wasn’t a gamble, even if the economics are perhaps couldn’t question at all that it would work, because it had challenging in today’s market. Since its launch in 2016 to been tested and tested and simulated and simulated. But 20 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM