Heerema Marine Contractors

Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) is a contractor headquartered in the Netherlands most notable for operation of three of the largest crane vessels in the offshore industry.

History

Heerema Marine Contractors was formed in 1948 as a small construction company providing oilfield platforms in Venezuela.

In the 1960s the company focused on the North Sea offshore developments. The company developed crane vessels to lift large offshore platforms and modules. The ship shaped crane vessel Challenger was equipped to lift 800 t.

The need for large stable crane vessels to operate in the North Sea environment lead the company to develop the first large semi-submersible crane vessels. In 1978, HMC commissioned Mitsui to construct the two sister semi-submersible crane vessels, DCV Balder and SSCV Hermod. These vessel could lift 5,400 tonnes with the twin cranes, and were later upgraded to 8,200 tonnes.

In 1988 HMC formed a joint venture with McDermott called HeereMac.

The SSCV Thialf was added to the Heeremac fleet, and upon the split of the companies in December 1997, Heerema took ownership of the Thialf, the largest deep water construction vessel and is capable of a tandem lift of 14,200 t (15,600 short tons)