World's Largest Crane Ship Arrives in Rotterdam
Pieter Schelte Heerema, one of the largest ships in the world with a length of more than three football fields, arrives at the port of Rotterdam for the last works before it is operational.
Pieter Schelte Heerema, one of the largest ships in the world, which is capable of lifting oil platforms weighing almost five times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, arrived Thursday in Rotterdam for the last work before it goes into service.
The nearly 400-metre (440-yard) long crane ship arrived in Europe's largest port from South Korea where it was built at DSME’s Okpo shipyard, ahead of starting work lifting rigs and laying pipelines this summer.
The vessel is 124m (407ft) wide and 382m (1,253ft) long – as long as the Empire State Building is high. Designed to assist offshore oil rigs, it reportedly cost around £1.9bn ($2.97bn) to build.
The Pieter Schelte was commissioned by Swiss company Allseas who specialize in offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction.
"The length and breadth combined cover a surface equivalent to eight football pitches," said Jeroen Hagelstein of Allseas, which owns the boat that can lift oil rigs weighing up to 48,000 tonnes.
"Usually, you have to take an oil platform in several pieces and assemble on site," says Hagelstein, "with Pieter Schelte; the platform can take one piece to install."
The ship is named after the father of the founder of Allseas, Pieter Schelte, who was in the Nazi SS during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, but later joined the Resistance.
After its completion in the Port of Rotterdam, it will sail to the South Stream project in the Black Sea to lay pipelines there. The ship will be used to install and remove offshore oil and gas rigs as well as to lay pipes.
The Pieter Schelte's enormous size allows it to lift and remove entire North Sea oil rigs in a single operation. A process that currently takes months, or even years, will be accomplished in days.
