June 22 - On its maiden voyage, SAL Schiffahrtskontor Altes Land's latest newbuilding Lone, undertook the heaviest lift ever in the company's history.
With its lifting capacity of 2 x 1,000 tonnes SWL the vessel loaded eight reactors weighing up to 1,719 tonnes and measuring 45 m x 8 m x 8 m (pictured below).
As part of the RPLC Deep Conversion Project Phase II in Venezuela these massive reactors were manufactured in Japan. They are destined for the PDVSA Puerto La Cruz refinery in Venezuela where they facilitate the conversion of heavy and extra heavy crude oil into high quality refined fuel products. The project was awarded to SAL by the Dutch heavy lift specialist Mammoet Logistics BV.
On its voyage, Lone first called the Japanese port of Higashi Harima where two hydrocracking reactors were loaded and continued on to Muroran to take six additional hydrotreating reactors onboard. From Muroran the vessel sailed through the Panama Canal directly to the port of Chaguaramas in Trinidad where the reactors are temporarily stored before being carried to their final destination of Puerto La Cruz in Venezuela.
After careful preparation, the reactors were discharged in record time: the heaviest reactor of 1,719 tonnes was set ashore in only 2.5 hours. The speed and performance of the loading and discharging operation resulted from a successful interplay between extensive preplanning by the joint team of SAL and Mammoet, the highly skilled and experienced crew, and the state-of-the-art lifting equipment onboard.
From Trinidad, the reactors will eventually be brought to Venezuela by barge.
Together with its sister vessel, SAL's Svenja, Lone is one of the two largest heavy-lift vessels in the world. It has a lifting capacity of 2,000 tonnes, a speed of 20 knots and the Dynamic Positioning System DP2. With these features, Lone has all the necessary elements for undertaking highly complex projects for the oil and gas industry as well as for the offshore sector. Apart from its high performance, Lone also possesses an Environmental Passport, which means it meets the highest environmental standards.
It is also ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 HSE certified. The heavy lifter measures 160.5 m in length and 27.5 m in width, and has a loading capacity of 11,000 tonnes and 40,000 cu m.
