Heerema?s Balder conversion

Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) is well known for its crane vessels Balder, Hermod and Thialf, the latter having a lifting capacity of 14,000t. However, the market for lifting platforms is becoming smaller while the market for offshore installations in deep water is growing. Therefore, Heerema has decided to convert Balder into a Deepwater Construction Vessel (DVC) which is able to lay pipelines in deep water with the J-method, a system already installed on Hermod. The conversion, which also included life extension maintenance for the semi-submersible, has been entrusted to Verolme Botlek as main contractor and should be completed in January 2002. On completion, Balder will depart to the US Gulf where it will commence its first deepwater project. The job involves installing a J-lay pipelaying tower, a dynamic positioning system and the entire renewal of the engine rooms. The vessel will get six new engine rooms, each with a 4,320kW MaK diesel engine. Moreover, seven new DP thrusters will be installed, each powered by a 3,500kW Lips thruster. A new Kongsberg DP and Ship Management system will provide the operational control. The conversion required the installation of 20km of new pipelines and 200km of electricity cables. Several subcontractors are involved, such as Van Dam Marine Contracting BV for the engineering, GTI Industrie and Croon for the electrical installation, Heinen & Hopman for the ventilation system and Fabricon-Sicon and GTI Mechanical for the pipework. Huisman-Itrec has been selected to construct the J-lay pipelaying tower. It will be able to install pipes with a diameter up to 32″ in water depths up to 3000m. This requires a large tension capacity. The tower will not be an integral part of Balder. It can be switched to another pipelaying vessel, even at sea during favourable circumstances. So far the work, which will require over one million man-hours, is proceeding on schedule. It is the intention to shift Balder in November to deep water for the installation of the thrusters. Delivery to HMC is scheduled on January 11th. It will be the largest offshore job so far performed by Verolme Botlek. The yard is well known for its offshore work, but it also handles dry cargo vessels and tankers. The yard was split off from the Wilton-Fijenoord group some years ago. This group has been wound up in the meantime, the original yard in Schiedam with the name Wilton-Fijenoord having been taken over by Rotterdam United Shipyards (RUS), which has since been taken over by Kommer Damen, of the Damen shipyards group.