Pieter Schelte is a vessel for single-lift installation and removal of large offshore oil and gas platforms, and installation of oil and gas pipelines.
Due to her large lifting capacity, Pieter Schelte drastically reduces the amount of offshore work associated with platform installation or decommissioning, moving this work to shore where it is less costly, faster, cleaner and safer.
In topsides decommissioning by a single lift, the reduction of man-hours to be spent offshore in cleaning, partitioning, installation of lifting points and rigging of platform modules, is a major step in the reduction of the risk of personal injury and the risk to personal health. The avoidance of offshore cleaning and purging of process facilities significantly reduces the risk to the environment.
In single-lift topsides installation, offshore hook-up activities are minimised as units can be transported offshore in very large sections; entire platform topsides up to a weight of 48000 t can be installed in one piece, entirely pre-fabricated onshore. This can lead to significant field development cost savings.
Large jackets weighing up to 25000 t can be removed in single lifts, thereby limiting subsea work to cutting through the foundation piles, thus avoiding the risk of having to cut up the jacket into small sections suitable for crane lifts.
Installation of large jackets can be done without the need for launching, saving structural steel in launch runners.
The economic threshold for the refurbishment of topsides and jackets for re-use is significantly lowered as topsides and jacket remain intact.
The ability to transfer structures to or from a cargo barge in sheltered water creates the flexibility to load at various fabrication sites, or to off-load at a variety of onshore sites for dismantling purposes. Due to the relatively shallow draft of Pieter Schelte and the feasibility of using cargo barges, structures can be delivered at any desired location.
The capabilities of Pieter Schelte to sail under her own power at a relatively high transit speed, the dynamic positioning system, the favourable motion characteristics and the motion compensation system for lifts make Pieter Schelte a unique vessel capable of working in hostile areas and at unprecedented speed. Her light ice class will extend the period that she can operate in polar regions.
The pipelay equipment makes it possible to install record weight pipelines from shallow to ultra deep water, and achieve high lay rates. The tensioner capacity of 2000 t, doubling the capacity of Allseas’ Solitaire, the world’s largest pipelay vessel, will move present boundaries.
The vessel was named after the offshore heavy lifting pioneer Pieter Schelte Heerema (1908 – 1981).
