The Heerema Group of companies undertakes many projects that can be qualified as remarkable. Here are a few examples of recent ones:
Removal of Frøy Platform
In September 2002, the 7,100 mT Froy jacket was removed successfully by using the reversed installation sequence. Heerema Marine Contractor's SSCV Thialf (14,400 mT crane capacity) performed the operation. After the offshore removal the jacket was transported to Merkjarvik, where it was lifted onshore, again by the Thialf. The 2500 mT topsides had already been removed in May 2002.
Erasmus Bridge
The tower and bridge sections of the Erasmus Bridge were built in Flushing and transported by sea to the Caland Canal. Here the crane vessel Thialf uprighted the tower section and placed it on the bridge section. The united tower and bridge section were then transported over the Nieuwe Waterweg to Rotterdam by barge, where they were positioned in one go onto the foundations.
Shell Mars Project
After hurricane Katrina, Heerema Marine Contractors was asked by Shell to do support work on Shell Mars Tension Leg Platform (TLP) in the Gulf of Mexico. This fast-track project, which involved the removal of the drilling tower, was successfully executed by the Hermod. In addition, HMC received an award in 2006 for the installation of the same drilling tower on top of the Mars Platform.
Decommissioning of the Brent Spar
After a long preliminary phase, the Brent Spar was re-used as a quayside near the Norwegian town of Stavanger. The crane vessel Thialf lifted sections of the redundant buoy into position after they had been raised and cut using the world's largest barge, the H-851. Five sections were reused as foundations for a quayside.
Head office of ING Bank, Amsterdam
A consortium of which the Heerema Fabrication Group was a member built the new head office of the ING Bank in Amsterdam. The office building is a hybrid building that includes steel and concrete. Hybrid buildings can be built by using large prefab sections.
Independence Hub Project
With the completion of the Independence Hub project in the Gulf of Mexico, Heerema Marine Contractors installed the deepest mooring piles ever. The Independence Hub is a floating platform that gathers gas from various fields of independent oil companies. Mooring piles are a kind of anchor points for mooring lines. The water depth record for installation of mooring piles was set at 2,440 m and was executed with the Balder mid 2006. Balder set another world record when commencing pipelay in the Atlas field at a water depth of 2,740 m (8,990 ft).
De Bolder office building
This office building was constructed at the Heerema Zwijndrecht yard and transported fully furnished by barge to its site at Schiedam.
Installation of the Shearwater platform
Shell's Shearwater oil and gas platform on the UK Continental Shelf is the largest and heaviest construction that has ever been placed in one piece on a substructure. This world record lift of 11,683 tons was performed by the crane vessel Thialf.
Benguela Belize Project
In May 2005 Heerema Marine Contractors successfully completed the installation of the first Compliant Tower in West African / Angolan water. A Compliant Tower is a kind of reed that gives with the wind and water. A remarkable job considering the amount of records that were broken and the circumstances under which the project was done. Not only did HMC install the heaviest Compliant Tower in the world (total weight of 85,000 tons), but records were also broken with the installation of the heaviest single-piece foundation pile and a record lift of 10,700 tons. The project was executed with its biggest crane vessel, Thialf.
Second Brienenoord Bridge
The second Brienenoord Bridge was built in one piece at Grootint's yard (now Heerema Zwijndrecht), part of the Heerema Fabrication Group, under special conditions, and transported by water to the A16 motorway to be placed next to the existing bridge.