In April, heavy lifting shipping company BigLift Shipping announced it had been contacted by global oil and gas company TechnipFMC and it had subsequently successfully made three heavy lift vessels available for work on the Coral floating liquefied natural gas development in Mozambique.

The vessels were contracted to mobilize the client’s equipment from various ports in Europe – Aberdeen, in the UK, Moss, in Norway, Le Trait, in France, Bilbao, in Basque Country, in Spain and Marina di Carrara, in Italy – and were destined for the Maputo and Pemba Bay ports in Mozambique.

The company highlights that the contract again showed the versatility of the BigLift fleet.

The fleet comprises of motor vessel m.v Happy Sky with her fly jib, installed for extended lifting height and reach, m.v. Palmgracht with the hatchcover support structure, allowing for carousels on deck to up to 3 500 mt and m.v. Happy Ranger carrying a carousel over a hold filled with buoyancy modules and reels.

In order of smooth sailing, m.v. Happy Sky loaded tether piles and template foundation piles, as well as buoys in Bilbao and Marina di Carrara.

On this vessel, BigLift mounted its in-house developed fly jib and discharged the cargo directly onto the platform supply vessel (PSV) of its client TechnipFMC.

Voyage two was in the capable hands of the crew of m.v. Palmgracht, which loaded carousels and reels in two shuttle voyages between Le Trait and Mozambique.

In Mozambique the cargoes were transferred onto offshore supply ship Skandi Africa and various PSVs, both in the Port of Maputo and in Pemba Bay.

This was the first project where the in-house developed hatchcover supports, allowing for greater weights on deck, were put to use.

The last voyage of the series was carried out by m.v. Happy Ranger, which loaded another carousel and reels as well as buoys in Aberdeen, Moss and Le Trait.

The complete project was rounded off within six months and made good use of a number of BigLift’s in-house developed extra cargo-tools, while shipping a great quantity of materials, delivering them with great care and precision.