Tombua Landana

Is a tropical sounding name for an oil production platform. It is also our final destination because our Crane Barge Thialf is installing this platform. The platform is a so-called Compliant Tower, it means nothing more than a vertical (flexible) steel structure fixed to the sea floor and reaching the surface to support the platform. On the picture you see the first module already installed on the tower. All together there will be round 40.000 metric tons of modules installed on top. A compliant tower has the same function as a jacket but it is not the same, a jacket is a rigid and stiff structure while a compliant tower is flexible. The whole platform can move in bad weather. Not like a feather in the wind, but still, it will move. The water depth is around 400 meters here, so you can imagine what an enormous structure we are talking about. Enormous structure requires record breaking installation vessels as well and that is what the Thialf is. Maximum crane lift capacity in the dual mode is around 14.000 tons. See the three people walking on the platform? Now you can see how big this is. Tonight the Thialf will lift the next module and install it; you will see the platform grow the next few days.
Want to see some Heerema pictures of the base structure of a compliant tower? Check these pictures of her sister platform Benguela Belize