World’s largest semi-submersible crane vessel in operation at Fécamp

In late July 2022, the largest semi-submersible crane vessel in the world, Sleipnir, began the installation of 71 concrete gravity-based foundations at EDF’s Fécamp offshore wind farm.

After Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Nazaire, the 497 MW Fécamp is the third French offshore wind farm to enter construction. All three projects are slated for commissioning next year

First foundation installation campaign for Sleipnir

The work scope at Fécamp is the first foundation installation campaign for the 2019-delivered vessel, however, it has been employed to undertake many platform installations and decommissioning projects since delivery. Sleipnir has two Huisman cranes, each with a 10,000-ton lifting capacity.

So far this year, the EDF scope at Fécamp has been the longest charter for the vessel at 65.3 days according to SpinConstruction analytics. Later in 2022, the vessel returns to the oil and gas sector for TotalEnergies at Tyra offshore Denmark for O&M activities. In 2023, the vessel is understood to be lined up for work in Australia.

The chart below indicates the industries Sleipnir has been employed in throughout the past three years. While it has predominantly worked in oil and gas the number of wind scopes has increased in line with the growing wind market segment.

Replacement for Saipem 7000 following an accident

Sleipnir was drafted in to undertake installations at Fécamp as a replacement for the 1987-delivered semi-submersible crane vessel Saipem 7000 which suffered a “lifting incident” while inshore Norway in April.

While Saipem 7000 was able to return to work by the end of May, there was a delay in its planned work schedule at SSE Renewables’ Seagreen 1 wind farm off the coast of Angus, Scotland, which subsequently affected its charter for Fécamp. Saipem 7000 has spent the majority of its time during 2022 at Seagreen 1 undertaking foundation installation. However, SpinConstruction shows that the vessel also had 15.3 days of substation/converter work at Saint Brieuc between June and July.

The work schedules of Sleipnir and hundreds more vessels can be found within Spinergie’s SpinConstruction solution. There you will find in-depth detail about vessel locations, work scopes and availability across all offshore wind projects.

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