GALLERY: World’s largest crane vessel arrives home

The world’s largest semi-submersible crane vessel, the Heerema Marine Contractors-owned Sleipnir, arrived at the Port of Rotterdam on Sunday, March 22.

Kolga, Heerema’s newly upgraded tug, joined Sleipnir at sea to guide the vessel into the Caland Canal, which is the entryway to the Port of Rotterdam.

Heerema said in its announcement on Sunday that the vessel had arrived around 14:45 CET. In line with ongoing coronavirus guidelines, the company decided to greet the vessel and its crew from the sky rather than onshore. The vessel also received a welcome salute on arrival.

Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven, Heerema’s CEO, said: “I and Kolga’s crew proudly guided Sleipnir on its first arrival into the Port of Rotterdam.

“We warmly welcome the vessel and the crew to The Netherlands and wish Sleipnir fair winds and good trades in the upcoming North Sea Summer Campaign.”

Heerema also noted that the giant vessel has a busy campaign ahead and it will depart in the coming weeks for the first of its several upcoming jobs.

Sembcorp Marine, a Singaporean ship and offshore builder, completed the construction of Heerema’s Sleipnir in May 2019 and it set on its maiden voyage in July 2019.

Since then, the vessel worked on several projects like the 15,300-tonne topside lift for Noble Energy’s Leviathan development in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel. The vessel also installed the Peregrino C platform on Equinor’s Peregrino field offshore Brazil.

It is worth noting that Sleipnir’s lift of the Leviathan topside was a world lifting record by a crane vessel.

The vessel stands at 220 meters long, 102 meters wide, can accommodate 400 employees, and weighs 119,000 tons. The semi-submersible vessel has two cranes onboard, each capable of lifting 10,000 metric tons.

Due to Sleipnir’s two large streamlined floats, the vessel can sail relatively quickly – on average, twenty kilometers per hour – with limited fuel consumption. The vessel is dual-fueled and can entirely run on LNG.

It is worth noting that Heerema’s vessels will soon be powered on 100 percent renewable energy during their stay in the Port of Rotterdam. This will be enabled through the ongoing Shore Power Caland Canal project in collaboration with Eneco.

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