The jacket and piles for the substation of the Veja Mate Offshore Wind Farm heading out to sea. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties/maritimephoto.com)
MORE WORK FROM THE WIND SECTOR FOR DUTCH OFFSHORE CONSTRUCTION YARDS by Paul Schaap, PAS Publicaties
The Dutch offshore construction yards faced poor market conditions in the oil and gas industry and ever fiercer competition, in 2016. Nonetheless, they still completed a series of fabrication assignments and won a number of new orders. The growing number of fabrication orders from the offshore wind energy sector was particularly welcome. Once again in 2016, the Heerema Fabrication Group attracted most attention, in particular with the load-out and sail-away in Zwijndrecht of the 10,500-tonne topside for the Montrose Bridge Linked Platform (BLP) operated by Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Limited. The fabrication of this module had been started way back in 2013. The topside measured 75 metres long, 45 metres wide and 40 metres high. The load-out and sail-away took place in April, on board the H-541 transport barge owned by Heerema Marine Contractors. That same contractor subsequently deployed its semi-submersible crane vessel Thialf to install the topside in the British 22/17 block, in the North Sea. 34
NETHERLANDS SUPPLIERS CATALOGUE 2017
A second load-out and sail-away soon followed from the Heerema yard in Zwijndrecht, on this occasion involving a topside and a jacket for a small unmanned gas production platform for Oranje-Nassau Energie (ONE). This topside weighed 500 tonnes, and the jacket a further 1,000 tonnes. Both platform sections were installed in the P11-E block in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, in May, by the jack-up vessel Innovation. The Heerema yard in Flushing saw the handover on 13 April 2016 of the first of a series of three jackets to be fabricated for the Culzean project currently being
