“A small piece of history written”: In a prestigious project, Dutch shipyard group Damen has built a new jack-up unit with heavy-lift capacity from two older jack-up platforms and a new mid-section. The christening has now been celebrated.
The christening of the “Obana”, a self-elevating heavylift jack-up, took place yesterday at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam’s Botlek site.
The project began back in 2021, when decommissioning specialist Petrodec developed a solution for decommissioning complex offshore platforms in the British North Sea.
To mark the launch, the Damen Group reviewed the entire project in a press release:
After examining various options, Petrodec had decided to merge two used jack-up vessels into a single jack-up vessel. The existing units were transported to Rotterdam, while a new mid-section was built in Dubai. For its arrival in November 2024, a 2,000-tonne crane from Liebherr in Rostock was also brought to the Netherlands and installed in Mammoet’s facilities.
On December 13, it was time for the three sections to enter dry dock number seven at the Damen Shiprepair shipyard – the largest in Western Europe at 405 x 90 m. “The size was decisive, as the width of the three units was 80 x 230 m,” Damen announced on the occasion of the christening.
Before docking, Damen had prepared the front and rear sections. Once the units had been positioned with the help of hydraulic jacks, welding could begin. In this part of the project, four new passages were created to connect the front and rear sections via the middle section. According to Damen Shiprepair, a total of around 300 tons of steel was added.
In addition, all the reinforcement and foundations for the two 60 t cranes of the “Obana” and the jib support of the main crane were installed and another 200 t of steel added. The Damen experts then assisted with the installation of the two crane bases and the jib support for the main crane. They were also involved in other work, according to the Damen statement, such as connecting the piping for the three sections and painting the outer shell, the cavities and the collapsed areas, including parts of the main deck. After undocking, the “Obana” was completed.
Peter Altena, Managing Director at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam, said: “This was an exciting and unique project and we are very proud of the result. In total, we worked 500,000 hours without a single lost time incident – a great achievement and a testament to the excellent partnership between Petrodec and Damen Shiprepair. Together we have made a little piece of history.”
