Pieter Schelte, named after the offshore heavy lifting pioneer Pieter Schelte Heerema (1908 – 1981), is a vessel for single-lift installation and removal of large offshore oil and gas platforms, and the installation of subsea oil and gas pipelines.
By utilising her large lifting capacity, Pieter Schelte will drastically reduce the amount of offshore work associated with platform installation and decommissioning, shifting the work onshore where it is safer and more cost effective.
Executing topsides removal in a single lift will reduce the man-hours spent offshore cleaning, partitioning, installing lifting points and rigging platform modules. This in turn, reduces health and safety risks. Avoiding offshore cleaning and purging of process facilities also reduces environmental risk.
Removal of jackets by conventional means requires them to be cut up into small sections suitable for crane lifts, requiring lengthy and complex subsea operations. Pieter Schelte can remove large jackets weighing up to 25,000 t in a single lift, limiting subsea work to the foundation piles. This increases the economic value of removed topsides and jackets because they remain intact, driving down conversion and refurbishment costs for re-use.
In single-lift topsides installation, offshore hook-up activities are minimised because units, completely prefabricated onshore, can be transported to the field in large sections. Complete platform topsides, up to a weight of 48,000 t, can be installed in one piece, generating significant field development cost savings. Furthermore, large jackets can be installed without the need for launching, saving on the structural steel used in launch runners.
Pieter Schelte is able to transfer structures to/from a purpose built cargo barge in sheltered water, giving her the freedom to load at various fabrication sites, or to offload at a variety of onshore sites for dismantling purposes. Due to her relatively shallow draft and the feasibility of using cargo barges, structures can be delivered to any desired location.
Capable of sailing under her own power at a high transit speed, and equipped with a dynamic positioning system and in-house developed motion compensation system, Pieter Schelte will be a one-of-a-kind vessel capable of working in hostile areas and at unprecedented speed. Her light ice class will extend the period that she can operate in the polar regions.
Her pipelay equipment makes it possible to install record weight pipelines from shallow to ultra deep water, and achieve high lay rates. Provided with a tensioner capacity of 2,000 t, twice that of the world's largest pipelay vessel, Allseas' Solitaire, will ensure Pieter Schelte pushes pipelaying boundaries even further.
