Project cargo specialist Red Box Energy Services has moved a jack-up rig from Denmark to China — exploiting the Arctic sailing season to cut more than three weeks of voyage time off the stormy Cape of Good Hope route.
The 7,900-nautical mile (14,600 km) voyage from Grenaa to Qingdao marks the first full Arctic transit for such a cargo.
The 28,900-dwt heavylift deck cargoship Audax (built 2016) took 27 days to complete the journey carrying the Atlantic Oilfield Services jack-up accommodation rig Atlantic Amsterdam (built 1982), as opposed to an estimated 51 days on the European-Asian sea route.
Red Box managing partner and chief executive Philip Adkins said: "The voyage as well as the operation itself have once again highlighted the importance of the Northern Sea Route as a compelling economic alternative to the Suez Canal or around the Cape of Good Hope."
Suez was ruled out by bridge limitations at El-Nasr, and the Cape was considered not only longer but riskier than the Arctic.
"The Northern Sea Route routing eliminated the risk of potential damage to the rig’s legs as a result of the high seas and violent wind conditions that are always a factor when navigating around the Cape," Red Box chief financial officer Chris Muilwijk said.
The loading of the ship was a one-of-a-kind operation. The ice-breaking deck cargoship is not a semi-submersible, so its 11,000-tonne cargo had to be loaded onto the stern from shore and positioned for stability on the voyage using the rig's own jack-up capabilities, then unloaded at Qingdao by reversing the process.
The engineering challenges to validate the feasibility of this transit were "complex", Red Box chief technical officer Rinse van Lievenoogen said.
"Not only was the 11,000-tonne weight of the rig a significant factor in our stability calculations, the position of the rig over the stern of the Audax required an extensive examination of the vessel’s hull and deck strength."
The ice-breaking voyage comes following Red Box's recent re-establishment as a new shipowning and operating entity in Singapore.
Red Box — now domiciled in Singapore with its main operational base in Rotterdam — is the successor of a similarly named company that operated in a joint venture with Chinese state-owned ZPMC Group.
TradeWinds recently reported on litigation over the break-up of the joint venture in Hong Kong, its former corporate home.
Red Box's former partner, mainland-based container crane manufacturer and shipowner ZPMC Group, lost a Hong Kong arbitration against its former partner late last year, when a panel found that ZPMC had violated terms of the joint-venture shareholders' agreement by bidding against its partners on long-term time charter project cargo tenders.
ZPMC later lost a bid to have the Hong Kong's high court overturn the arbitration awards when the court ruled the arbitrators had decided the case correctly.
Red Box retained control of the Audax and its 24,500-dwt sistership Pugnax (built 2016). It purchased them at auction, backed by a refinancing deal with the shipbuilder's leasing affiliate CSSC Finance.
