Allseas' mega-vessel, the Pieter Schelte, is close to leaving Korea for Europe after leaving Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering's quayside on Geoje Island for open water for sea trials.
Tests on the 382m-long, 124m-wide vessel, built for decommissioning and installing platform topsides weighing up to 48,000-tonne and jackets, in single lifts, started with final thruster tuning, testing and verification of the remaining power management system.
Image: The Pieter Schelte, offshore Goeje Island. Photos from Allseas.
The vessel's marine propulsion systems also underwent an endurance trial, which required sign off from Lloyd’s Register, and demands all systems be run at 100% load for 12 hours.
Final tuning of the vessel's dynamic positioning system, which is being performed at a variety of vessel draughts from 12-26m, is ongoing.
Pieter Schelte is due to then leave South Korea in October and is expected to arrive in Rotterdam at the end of the year. In the Rotterdam harbour, Allseas have rented a deepwater site where Pieter Schelte will be moored and and its 16 lifting beams, for topsides lifting, will be installed during the spring of 2015.
Test lifts with the system on a test platform in the southern North Sea, which Allseas is building, are planned for around April 2015.
In the summer of 2015, the Pieter Schelte is due to undertake its first contract - the removal of the Talisman Yme platform will take place.
The Pieter Schelte will then be prepared for the South Stream pipelay project, which comprises an 888km pipeline from Russia, through the Black Sea to Bulgaria. Allseas has the contract, and depending on timing of the first Brent platform removal (Allseas is contracted to , which is due to be Brent Delta, it will use the Pieter Schelte, or its pipelay vessel Solitaire.
Pieter Schelte facts:
Read more: Korea looks to western engineering expertise
Pieter Schelte: Bigger and better
Subscribe
