Pioneering Spirit is the world's largest ship by gross tonnage, a measure of interior space, not of weight. It is also the heaviest vehicle ever made.
It does not rely on a conventional crane.
The hull is split. It straddles the platform, slides beams under the upper structure, and lifts it using a motion system powered by ballast. Moving water inside the hull changes the ship's height.
Motion compensation, a system that counteracts the rocking of the waves, keeps the load steady in open sea.
Between 2017 and 2024, it removed all four topsides from Shell's Brent field in the UK North Sea.
Together they weigh about 100,000 metric tonnes.
The heaviest was Brent Charlie.
34,000 US tons (31,000 metric tonnes), lifted at once.
The heaviest offshore lift recorded until then.
In 2025, it was Heather Alpha's turn.
The ship removed its topsides in about 14 seconds.
It can lift an upper structure of up to 66,000 US tons (60,000 metric tonnes) at once.
How much is that in cars?
About 40,000 passenger cars, except here the load leaves the sea in one piece.
Dangerous cutting moves to shore, where the structure comes apart in calm conditions.
The sea is no longer the workshop.
The shore takes the cutting.
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