PRESS RELEASE – The world’s largest semi-submersible crane vessel, Heerema’s Sleipnir, will arrive in the Port of Rotterdam for the first time on Saturday, March 21. The vessel arrives to prepare for future decommissioning work across the North Sea. 

Since Singaporean shipbuilder Sembcorp Marine delivered the vessel in July 2019, it has been busy across the globe. Sleipnir has just finished a project in Trinidad and before that already worked in Brazilian and Israeli waters.

The vessel arrives to prepare for future decommissioning work across the North Sea with departure planned for the end of March.

Largest crane vessel

Named after the Norse God Odin’s eight-legged stallion, the vessel stands at 220 metres long, 102 metres wide, can accommodate 400 employees, and weighs 119,000 tonnes. As equally impressive as its mythical namesake, the vessel has already broken lifting records for crane vessels with a 15,300 lift in September 2019. The semi-submersible vessel has two cranes onboard, each capable of lifting 10,000 tonnes.

LNG

Due to Sleipnir’s two large streamlined floats, the vessel can sail relatively quickly (on average, twenty kilometres per hour) with limited fuel consumption. What is unique about Sleipnir is that it has ‘dual fuel’ propulsion and can run entirely on LNG.

Heerema actively invests in sustainability measures, most recently trialling alternative fuels on Thialf, a semi-submersible crane vessel with a 14,200 metric ton lifting capacity. The company is also involved in the ongoing Shore Power Caland Canal project in collaboration with Eneco to provide 100% renewable energy to Heerema vessels that moor in the Port of Rotterdam.