Holding OOS International Group B.V. announced yesterday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Merchants Industry Holdings, a fully owned subsidiary of China Merchants Group headquartered in Hong Kong, for the basic design and construction of the largest SSCV in the world, the OOS Zeelandia, a revolutionary new Semi-Submersible Crane Vessel.

OOS has revealed the OOS Zeelandia during the EU-China Blue Industry Cooperation Forum on December 8th in Shenzhen, but confirms it has already signed the MOU with CMIH back in July of this year. The basic design is already in progress. By signing this agreement, both parties have confirmed their commitment to establish and maintain a strategic partnership based on the engineering and construction phase for this unexcelled new vessel. OOS International attaches great importance to innovation and quality of its fleet.

The company enhances their capabilities by introducing a next-generation SSCV suitable for platform removal and installation in deep water. The platform will be equipped with two cranes with an impressive lifting capacity of 12,000T per crane, the aft crane is fitted with a 360 degrees rotating DP work bridge where DPO’s and crane drivers are located next to each other, an enormous open deck space for positioning and transport of heavy modules, an unprecedented 112 meters between the cranes and a large hotel capacity integrated in the deck box. Furthermore, this state-of-the-art dynamically positioned ICE Class 1B LNG vessel can reach a high transit speed up to 15.4 knots and has a low fuel consumption due to its ship shaped asymmetric design.

Mr. Léon Overdulve, CEO and founder of OOS International, confirms this platform is the world’s largest and most powerful LNG SSCV ever constructed. “These immense volumes that go beyond the capacity of our current fleet will be of great value to the decommissioning and subsea installation market based on client demands concerning the removal and installation of a high number of platforms. The new vessel which will be designed with the highest safety and ecological standards proves our dedication and persistence to provide the most significant benefits in terms of people, profit and planet to optimally serve the developing oil and gas industry. We strongly value sustainable relationships and found a reliable partner in China Merchants Industry Holdings, engaged and highly experienced in building offshore equipment and vessels.’’

Two of the current SSCV’s of OOS International are in operation today, working on the renovation and maintenance of the production platforms of Petrobras in Brazil. In 2016 OOS International has signed a contract with major partner China Merchants Industry Holdings for building two new SSCV’s, the OOS Serooskerke and OOS Walcheren, which can be utilized for dismantling, lifting and removal of platforms. Both vessels will be equipped with two heavy lift Huisman cranes with a total crane capacity of 4,400T and a sizeable hotel capacity of 750 persons on board of each. The delivery of these newbuilds is expected in 2019.

Source: OOS International