Heavy Lift Vessel News

Dutch offshore contractor Allseas informs it has secured the contract to perform transport and installation (T&I) of two major substations (so called OSS) for the Gennaker offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea, developed by transmission operator 50Hertz.Located 15 kilometers off the German coast near the Darß peninsula, and with a production capacity of 900 MW, Gennaker will be the largest and most powerful offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea to date.Awarded by the Dutch-Belgian HSI consortium – HSM Offshore Energy…

Sanmar has delivered a compact RAscal 1500 ASD tug to CCI Bayonne Pays Basque, which manages the Port of Bayonne in France.Based on the RAscal 1500 design series from Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd, Göksu V is 14.95 meters long with a molded breadth of 8.3 meters and a least molded depth and navigational draft of 3 meters. It can achieve 16 tons of bollard pull and a speed of 10 knots.Göksu V is an ASD tug that has been specifically designed and developed for ship-handling in modern, but typically smaller harbor and port operations.

Esgian's last roundup of the year for the Week 52 puts spotlight on new developments for Dolphin Drilling semisub, Seadrill drillships, as well as Shell’s plans for Australia and ONGC’s new tender for jackups in India.ContractsDolphin Drilling has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed operator for the 1,500-ft semisubmersible Borgland Dolphin to undertake a 500-day drilling campaign in the UK. The drilling campaign is planned to begin directly after the firm part of the contract period with EnQuest, which was announced in late November 2023.

The new Orca Class heavy-lift vessels being built at China's Wuhu Shipyard for the Jumbo-SAL-Alliance will be propelled by SCHOTTEL ControllablePropellers (SCP).The four-bladed controllable pitch propellers type SCP 129 will feature an input power of up to 8,810 kW and a propeller diameter of six meters.Jumbo-SAL-Alliance is a commercial joint venture between German shipping company SAL Heavy Lift and Netherlands-based Jumbo Shipping. Their new Orca Class, which includes four firm and two optional vessels…

The installation of the first monopiles and transition pieces has kicked off for the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States - the Vineyard Wind 1.“We can finally say it – as of today, there is ‘steel in the water,’” said Klaus S. Moeller, CEO of Vineyard Wind, the company developing the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm, located in a federal wind energy area 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and 35 miles from mainland Massachusetts.Vineyard…

In addition to wind, offshore wind demands human energy, individuals with knowledge and skills first to build and then operate and maintain the dozens of projects required to meet President Biden’s 2030 goal of 30 GW of offshore generation. In an October 2022 National Renewable Energy Laboratory report – “U.S. Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment” – the authors estimate that it will require, on average, between 15,000 and 58,000 employees annually, depending on domestic content scenarios, to build out a huge new wind machine.Mariners and mariner training are integral to offshore wind.

AAL Shipping has released a short film highlighting the design of its mega size 32,000dwt Super B-Class heavy lift vessels. The first, the AAL Limassol, is expected to be launched next year.The Super B-Class design was a collaboration between AAL’s engineering and commercial teams and sister company, Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM). The vessels were designed to be the most efficient and competent multi-purpose vessels (MPVs) available, built on the engineering team’s expertise in handling heavy lift…

Singapore-based Cyan Renewables has contracted Ulstein Design & Solutions BV to design a series of new floating foundation installation vessels (FFIV) dedicated to offshore wind. Ulstein said that the new FFIVs would feature adequate deck space and crane capacity to meet developments in foundation design, including monopiles and jackets. In addition, they will also have low emission capability, using a hybrid power system consisting of dual-fuel engines (methanol), shore power and a battery energy storage system.Torgeir E.

China's WuHu Shipyard has cut the first steel for an Orca series heavy lift vessel being built for an alliance between SAL Heavy Lift GmbH and Jumbo Shipping.Back in September 2022, SAL and Jumbo said they had signed building contracts for four firms plus two optional new-generation heavy lift ships with Wuhu Shipyard."After a long and extensive planning phase, our Orca newbuilding series has finally kicked off! On 22 February, the ceremonial first steel cutting was conducted at WuHu Shipyard in Wuhu, China," the Dutch heavy lifting and transportation firm Jumbo said Tuesday.

Wagenborg Towage confirmed Monday that Jan De Nul had awarded it a contract for transporting 107 monopile foundations for Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms in Germany to Eemshaven. Assisted by the tug ‘waterlines’, the first transports arrived in Eemshaven under agency of Wagenborg.In the upcoming months, Wagenborg will perform another 35 voyages with monopiles from Germany and Denmark to the temporary storage in Eemshaven using a specially equipped pontoon…

Four Greenpeace activists on Tuesday boarded the heavy transportation vessel carrying Shell's Penguins FPSO aboard, calling on the oil major to "Stop Drilling. Start Paying."Six Greenpeace International activists attempted, and four managed to board Boskalis' White Marlin vessel in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Canary Islands. The heavy transportation vessel is carrying the recently delivered 34,000t Penguins FPSO, which is planned to ultimately be deployed northeast of the Shetland Islands in the North Sea for the Penguins field project.

Offshore installation company Jan De Nul said Thursday that Les Alizés, its next-generation heavy lift vessel, had sailed away from the CMHI Haimen Shipyard in China and is currently heading for Europe.The vessel was delivered by the shipyard on January 16 and departed Thursday.Les Alizés is designed for loading, transporting, lifting, and installing offshore wind turbine foundations. The main features are a main crane of 5,000 tons, a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tons, and a deck space of 9…

Norwegian-based shipbuilding and design group Ulstein has unveiled the design for a new foundation installation vessel enabling operators and contractors to efficiently transport and install monopiles or jacket foundations up to 5,000 tons.The new ULSTEIN HX122 vessel features an ULSTEIN X-BOW and an ultra-high-capacity 8,000 mt crane, engineered for the next generation of foundations in the offshore wind industry.Market analysts and brokers have flagged a projected shortage of foundation installation vessels as existing tonnage and newbuild orders are expected to lag behind projected demand.

Salvors have removed two tugs from the Mersey River in Devonport on the northwest coast of Tasmania that had been sunk by a cement carrier in January.New South Wales based emergency response, salvage and environmental support specialist, United Salvage, engaged AAL Shipping to supply the 31,000DWT 700 tonne heavy lift vessel AAL Melbourne for lifting of the tugs and their onward shipment along the East Coast to Brisbane. The first tug, the 420 tonne York Cove, was pulled out of…

Offshore installation specialist Jan De Nul Group has ordered a high-end crane simulator for two of its Next Generation Offshore Installation Vessels Voltaire and Les Alizés.According to Jan De Nul, the crane simulator will be based on real physics and the actual vessel models, enabling Jan De Nul to train its crewmembers and realistically simulate complex offshore installations in a completely safe environment, in the most severe conditions. The partner for the development of this simulator is the Norway-based company OSC AS (previously known as Offshore Simulator Centre).

Saipem's giant Saipem 7000 semi-submersible crane vessel is set to return to operation at the Seagreen wind farm site in the UK a month and a half after it was involved in a tilting incident in Norway.As previously reported, in mid-April, Saipem 7000 tilted in a fjord in Norway with 275 people aboard. The vessel tilted during the planned 5 years main cranes load test, when, as Saipem said, the main block wire broke during the test lifting operation and the testing load (two cargo barges) with the main block was released into the water.Now the vessel appears ready to return to work…

Offshore wind installation contractor Seaway 7 has been selected as a preferred contractor by Ørsted for the transport and installation of wind turbine generators for part of the Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms in Germany. Under the contract, the first since the last week's merger between OHT and Seaway 7, the company will use its jack-up installation vessel VIND1, currently under construction in China.The two offshore wind projects are expected to be fully commissioned in 2024 and 2025.

Offshore installation firm Jan De Nul said Thursday that Les Alizés, its next-gen floating offshore installation vessel had been launched at the CMHI Haimen shipyard in China.The vessel is now ready for the final construction phase, including sea trials, to be completed by H2 2022.Les Alizés will be the largest Heavy Lift Vessel in Jan De Nul’s fleet, able to install XXL offshore wind components, in floating conditions and with ultra-low emissions.The launch started on January 2, by flooding the dry dock in which Les Alizés was built.

Dutch heavy lift shipping and offshore transport & installation contractor Jumbo has completed the transport and handling of offshore wind turbine foundation components for Ørsted’s Hornsea Two offshore wind farm in the UK.Supporting DEME Offshore, Jumbo deployed its K-3000 class heavy lift vessel Fairmaster to carry out its scope of transporting 141 monopiles and 131 transition pieces from Rostock, Germany, and Aalborg, Denmark to Eemshaven, the Netherlands.This 152.9 meter-long heavy lift vessel…

Dutch offshore installation and construction firm Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) has renewed its Long-Term System Support Program (LTSSP) contract with Kongsberg Digital for another five years.The LTSSP is in support of a K-Sim Offshore Crane simulation system, which features digital twins of HMC’s semi-submersible construction vessels, ships, and barges. HMC’s simulation center is located at the HMC headquarters in Leiden, the Netherlands."Renewal of the LTSSP ensures Kongsberg Digital’s continued commitment to maintaining Heerema’s simulators at the leading edge of available technology…

Japanese shipping company NYK Group's heavy lift vessel Katori saved 11 crew members from a vessel in distress off Sri Lanka on April 27.NYK said that the 138 meters long Katori, owned by its affiliate NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers Ltd. (NBP), received a distress call while sailing from Genoa, Italy, to Singapore.Port authority of Colombo, Sri Lanka, sent a call at around 20:20 on April 27 to rescue crew members of a vessel in distress drifting off the coast of Sri Lanka due to…

Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine said Wednesday it had secured contracts worth around S$250 million (~$186 million) for the conversion of a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), integration of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, and the "jumboisation" of two Trailing Suction Hopper Dredgers (TSHD).For the first contract, Keppel Shipyard has received the Final Notice to Proceed (FNTP) from GAS-fifteen Ltd, a  GasLog Carriers subsidiary, for the conversion of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Carrier into an FSRU.

The largest shipwreck removal project in American history is drawing to a close.On Monday, salvage personnel removed the final section of the overturned car carrier Golden Ray, which capsized in the St. Simons Sound near Georgia's Port of Brunswick in September 2019.The ensuing salvage project—considered to be the largest and most complex in U.S. waters—required more than 3 million collective manhours as crews cut the 656-foot ship into eight sections for lifting and barge transport to a local facility for partial dismantling.