‘Simon Stevin’ to start work offshore Australia
The newbuild Simon Stevin will start its first project offshore of Australia.
Jan de Nul's new mining and fallpipe vessel ‘Simon Stevin’ has departed for Australia for its first two rock dumping projects; a free span correction on the Pluto pipeline in 80m of water, and the construction of a pipeline crossing for the Reindeer pipeline over the Pluto pipeline.
Simon Stevin will load the required rock on its way to Australia, and due to its capacity, a significant advantage it holds over similar vessels is that the full load of 33,500 tons is just sufficient to execute both projects without reloading.
Simon Stevin was delivered to Dredging and Maritime Management SA, a subsidiary of Jan De Nul Group, on 4 February. The vessel was built by the shipyard Construcciones Navales del Norte in Sestao, near Bilbao, in Spain. It is by far the largest vessel of its kind and can work down to 2,000m water depth.
Simon Stevin is in fact the largest free sailing fallpipe vessel in the world with its capacity of 33,500 tons. This is 25% larger than Nordness, which has a capacity of 25,960 tons. Jan de Nul also describes Simon Stevin as the first ‘purpose built’ fallpipe vessel. The fall pipe can be assembled and installed in six hours and, after dumping, can be dismantled in the same time period. Apart from the primary ROV on the fallpipe, the vessel is also equipped with a second ROV for survey and other interventions. Rock is dumped at 2,000 tons per hour.
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