Yet Another Series of Topflight Performances by Dutch Heavy Transport Operators

Just like in previous years, in 2017 the Dutch heavy transport operators once again completed a series of remarkable and ground-breaking operations with their impressive fleet of heavy transport vessels. In particular market leader Dockwise, a subsidiary of Royal Boskalis Westminster, attracted considerable attention transporting huge loads for the Mariner project in the UK and the Aasta Hansteen project in Norway. At the same time, other Dutch operators including Red Box Energy Services, BigRoll Shipping, BigLift Shipping, Jumbo Shipping and RollDock Shipping featured strongly.

In recent times, despite lower capacity utilisation, the Dockwise heavy transport fleet has been hard at work, including a series of trips between the Far East and Western Europe. These involved no less than five transport runs carrying eight heavy topsides modules and a flare boom for the large Mariner production platform that had to be installed in block 9/11A in the British sector of the North Sea. On 2 May 2017 the heavy transport vessel Forte set sail from South Korea carrying the first two topside modules. She was followed shortly afterwards by the Mighty Servant 3, Fjord, Trustee and Mighty Servant 1. In just a few short months a total of 38,000 tonnes of topside modules were successfully transferred to Western Europe. Another large-scale project involved the transport of

the 109 metre-long hull of the Statoil Aasta Hansteen Spar platform, weighing in at a massive 46,000 tonnes, making this the largest Spar type platform in the world. In two months the Dockwise flagship Vanguard, transported this massive hull with a diameter of 50 metres from South Korea to Norway. Shortly afterwards, the White Marlin set sail from South Korea, carrying the 24,000-tonne topsides module for the same Aasta Hansteen platform. On arrival in Norway this huge module was taken on board by the heavy transport vessels Teal and Swift, that succeeded in installing the topside module on the previously arrived hull section by working as a sort of super catamaran, in a so-called dual-barge float-over operation. Yet another groundbreaking transport operation concluded successfully.

Series of transport operations A number of other remarkable transport operations was also carried out in 2017 by the world’s largest heavy transport vessel. The series included the transport of the FPU Likouf, weighing 80,500 tonnes, from South Korea to Gabon, the passage of a 235 metre-long and 53 metre-wide dry dock from Klaipeda in Lithuania to Bijela in Montenegro and the transport of the massive semi-submersible crane vessel Hermod owned by Heerema Marine Contractors from Rotterdam to China. Elsewhere the Blue Marlin transported the brand-new jack-up drilling rig Askeladen from South Korea to Norway, where this so-called Cat-J rig based on a design from GustoMSC was due to be put to work on behalf of Statoil. The Dockwise vessels also transported several other drilling rigs, workboats, container cranes and a pair of American naval vessels, in addition to which various new contracts were signed in 2017. For example in 2021 the Dockwise Vanguard is due to be deployed to transport the large West White Rose topsides from Texas in the United States to Newfoundland in Canada. Another contract describes the transport of 36 jackets from the United Arab Emirates to Flushing in the

Netherlands, a project on which two heavy transport vessels are due to start work in the near future. Finally, the heavy transport vessel Finesse, operated by Dockwise, was converted at the Keppel yard in Singapore into a crane vessel and subsequently equipped in Xiamen with a Huisman crane with a lifting capacity of 3,000 tonnes. The vessel was rechristened the Bokalift 1, and will be deployed by Boskalis in both the oil and gas industry and the wind energy sector. An initial contract for the wind energy sector has already been signed. This year the Bokalift 1 will be carrying out installation work for the Hornsea Offshore Wind Farm Project One. Plans are also afoot to convert the Forte into a crane vessel.

Module carriers During the course of 2017 Red Box Energy Services from Rotterdam was also involved in the transport of modules from the Far East to the Russian Yamal peninsula, as part of the Yamal LNG project. To undertake this work the operator called upon the modern heavy transport vessels Red Zed 1, Red Zed 2, Pugnax and Audax. In total 264 modules had to be transported to Sabetta, as part of this

project. Another relatively new Dutch player in this market segment is BigRoll Shipping, a collaborative venture between BigLift Shipping from Amsterdam and RollDock Shipping based in Capelle aan den IJssel, who launched four new heavy transport vessels, in quick succession. These were in 2016 the BigRoll Barentsz, BigRoll Bering and BigRoll Baffin and in 2017 the BigRoll Beaufort.

A number of these vessels was also deployed for transporting modules for the Yamal LNG project, while the BigRoll Bering made a series of trips with container cranes. After more than two years of close collaboration, BigLift Shipping and RollDock Shipping decided to terminate the joint venture BigRoll Shipping, as of 1 January 2018. Of the four vessels the BigRoll Barentsz and the BigRoll Baffin transferred to the BigLift fleet while the other two went to RollDock. The BigLift vessels were rechristened the BigLift Barentsz and BigLift Baffin.

Project cargoes BigLift Shipping based in Amsterdam and the Schiedambased Jumbo Shipping transported a whole series of modules, ships, loading/unloading installations, wind turbine components and other heavy and large objects during the course of 2017. For example, BigLift’s Happy Buccaneer transported large components for the upgrade of a refinery to Talera in Peru. Another eye-catching transport operation was entrusted to the Happy Diamond, which used its own cranes to load 3,385 tonnes of grillage parts in Leam Chabang in Thailand, for transport to Haugesund in Norway. After the grillage parts had been placed on the Heerema barge H-627, the semisubmersible crane vessel Thialf, operated by Heerema Marine Contractors assembled the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform modules on top of these parts. In other operations together with Jumbo, BigLift transported a total of 88 modules from China and South Korea to the United States. The modules in question were intended for the Sasol project in Lake Charles. Jumbo BigLift Projects was specifically established for this project. The modules were transported in 14 shipments by among others the Happy Sky and Jumbo Kinetic.

While BigLift transported a record number of ship loaders and unloaders, Jumbo was particularly active in 2017 in carrying out transport and installation work for the oil and gas industry. In that framework a contract was signed at the start of 2017 for the replacement and recovery of an FPSO mooring system in the central section of the North

Sea. In June the Fairplayer transported two large FPSO modules, each weighing around 950 tonnes, from Brazil to China.

The Jumbo Vision carried water injection umbilicals from Newcastle in the UK to Nigeria, while the Fairmaster delivered a 1,200-tonne vertical lay system from Huisman in Schiedam to Sauapé in Brazil. The Fairmaster then transported a further three large FPSO modules to China. The Jumbo Javelin completed a 75-day support campaign, providing subsea umbilicals, risers and equipment for the Shell Prelude FLNG project in Australia. At the end of 2017 Jumbo Offshore transported and installed a soft yoke anchor system for Golar LNG’s Hilli Episeyo project in Cameroon, while in December, Jumbo signed a letter of intent with China Merchants Industry Holdings for the construction of a new dp2 heavy-lift crane vessel, based

on a design produced in collaboration with Ulstein Design and Solutions. The ship is due to be handed over in 2020 and will be equipped with two Huisman cranes with a lifting capacity of 2,200 and 400 tonnes respectively. With a length of 185 metres and measuring 36 metres at the beam, this will be the world’s largest X-bow vessel. Finally, the dock vessels operated by RollDock Shipping once again transported a whole series of floating objects, cranes and heavy modules. RollDock Star for example was deployed to transport two large modules for the Cheniere LNG plant from Tarragona in Italy to Corpus Cristi in the American State of Texas. The RollDock Sun transported modules from Tarragona to Schiedam for the Exxon project and the RollDock Sun and RollDock Storm moved several heavy modules from Qingdao in China to Schiedam. These modules are intended for the SDA project at Shell Pernis. Mammoet took responsibility for the loadout of the modules in question.

Heavy transport specialists Schiedam-based Mammoet was involved throughout 2017 at various locations around the world, including Australia and Norway, in the assembly of wind turbines and the

loadout of offshore installations. Of particular note was the fact that for the very first time Mammoet’s very largest cranes were simultaneously deployed on a single project, namely at a refinery and petrochemical complex, on behalf of Petronas in Malaysia. To complete this project Mammoet has deployed a total of 35 cranes. The work started in 2016 and will continue until 2019. In September 2017 Mammoet also initiated a heavy lift and transport contract for a petrochemical plant in Sohar in Oman.

ALE based in Breda was responsible last year for the heaviest lifting operation ever carried out using a mobile crane on land. The operation involved the installation of modules on an FPSO in Brazil. The heaviest of the total of 40 modules in total weighed 3,000 tonnes. Elsewhere in Brazil ALE took on board two FPSO modules on the Fairplayer, completed the loadout of two jackets weighing 12,369 and 13,977 tonnes respectively for the Shah Deniz 2 project in Baku and weighed, transported and loaded out a 3,702-tonne turret mooring system in Johor, Malaysia. Finally, in South Korea ALE undertook the heaviest loadout operation ever, with the loadout of the 40,440-tonne Appomattox hull n

The semi-submersible crane vessel Hermod was transported from Rotterdam to China, on board the Dockwise Vanguard. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)

The BigRoll Bering transporting modules for the Yamal LNG project.(Photograph: RollDock)

The RollDock Storm arriving with modules for the SDA project for Shellin Schiedam. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)

The Fairmaster transported a pipelying system fabricated by Huisman, to Brazil. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)