Page 21: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2022)

20 22

“A new challenge is the installation of big windmills.

Big windmills today are 13 MW, 14MW. They are going up to 15

MW and people talk about 20

MW, so we have developed a system that can handle up to 20 MW. By weight it’s nothing, but in terms of technical challenge, it’s very interesting because the windmills are very big, the blades are extreme sizes and installation is at enormous heights. We think

Pioneering Spirit is a big vessel, but if you take the biggest windmill of the future, she is tiny in comparison.” ? Edward Heerema,

Founder and President, Allseas

All photos courtesy Allseas still, I remember very well being there on board and the Johan Sverdrup, the latest being the 20,000 ton P2 top- button was pressed, and you hope she goes, and she went, sides, completed this March. and that was fantastic. But the real emotional success was Despite these successes, it’s been a relatively challenging the lifting of the Brent Delta topsides, because at a weight period. “The amount of work, 25 lifts in ? ve years, has of 24,000 tons that was a world lifting record.” been reasonable, but not impressive,” says Edward. The pandemic extended the depression that hit in 2014, re-

BEATING RECORDS ducing activity. “There’s not been suf? cient work for ev-

Since then, projects with Pioneering Spirit have be- erybody,” he says. “None of the installation contractors come routine work, beating its own record for the world’s have had enough work. Everybody is surviving, because heaviest single-lift offshore with the 26,000 ton Johan even when you get a reasonable amount of work, it is at

Sverdrup process platform (P1) topsides installation in very low prices because of the enormous competition in 2019. Pioneering Spirit installed P1 on a Tuesday, fol- the installation and removal business. That aside, we have lowed by the ? eld’s 18,000 ton living quarters topsides done relatively well. We have got very reasonable amount just a couple of days later. These were two of four top- of work and we’ve been nicely busy with installations, with sides installations Allseas is contracted to perform on removal, both big and small and some pipelay projects.” march/april 2022 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 21