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The vessel will have to remove a platform for offshore drilling in the North Sea. The usual thing, if not for the name of the vessel itself. The indignation turned out to be so great that its owner decided to rename.
The length of the stinger transport is 382 meters, which only slightly falls short to the height of the Empire State Building, but wider than the flattened Big Ben. It can lift oil platforms weighing up to 48,000 tons. Supporting the drilling platform of 25,000 tons also bears no difficulty. With its eight engines of 11.2 Megawatts each, this ship is the only one in the world at the moment capable of removing a large oil platform like the Brent Delta in the North Sea. The British-Dutch oil concern wants to use it in the near future.
Problem
However, until now, the problem is the name of this specialized vessel: Peter Schelte, in honor of a war criminal who was in Waffen-SS & later convicted by the Dutch court. Son of Schelte is Edward Heerema, the owner of the Swiss firm “Allseas”, which among other things owns this floating colossus.
He had to cede strong public pressure – in the UK & the Netherlands, Jewish communities protested this name & he renamed the ship.
Management Response
“In response to the reaction of the last days, it was announced that the name of the ship “Peter Schelte” will be changed,” the company said in writing. “He never set himself the goal of someone’s insult,” – says the spokesperson of “Allseas”. A new name will be announced in the coming days.
The construction of this ship in South Korea cost 1.9 billion pounds or 2.54 billion Euros. Currently, it is in the port of Rotterdam. According to Shell, the concern is one of the first clients of Allseas, wishing to dismantle the oil platform with the help of Peter Schelte. The main components of the decommissioned offshore drilling platform “Brent Delta” weigh about 23.5 thousand tons; they will be used as cutting scrap in the UK.
The main task of this vehicle is to move the oil producing platforms from the primary locations to the ports. The ship copes without problems with the task: during the operation, usually the platform rises & then the rig is transported to the destination.