May 10 - Two separate and significant heavy lift cargoes have been transported between Europe and Singapore to support the island state's industrial interest in the global oil and gas industry.
In the first movement, SAL was awarded a contract to transport the largest stinger ramps ever built from Rotterdam to Singapore. The company's heavy lift ship, Annette carried out this shipment in April.
For the oversized cargo with a unit weight of up to 880 tonnes and dimensions of up to 42.50 m × 15.10 m × 18.00 m, SAL's engineering department designed a complex understructure for weight distribution on deck. The engineering and manufacturing of the weight spreading system had to be completed in a very short time. The stinger ramps were loaded and discharged by floating crane.
In Singapore, the stinger ramps will be assembled by Keppel Shipyard in order to complete the building ofCastorone, which will become the world's largest pipe laying vessel.
Earlier, SAL had moved a TLS (Tiltable Lay System) tower from Singapore to Flushing, The Netherlands, for Subsea 7- Offshore Resources. The unit, with a weight of around 450 tonnes, measured 18.86 m × 10.34 m × 33.00 m.
Despite the height of the TLS tower, SAL offered to lift the piece in its fully assembled state.
For this purpose, SAL's engineering division had to develop a precise lifting and rigging arrangement, because there was very narrow space between lifting beam and tower.
To support the big loads on the hatch cover beams, the engineering team designed a complex grillage as well as a sea-fastening system as it was not allowed to do any lashings on the cargo. The TLS tower was fastened to the grillage with a pin connection only.
