This article was updated to add information about Mitsui O.S.K.’s (MOL) acquisition of a stake in Deutsche Offshore Schifffahrt and shares in the company’s C-CSOVs.
The first steel has been cut for the first of Deutsche Offshore Schifffahrt’s (DO) four construction commissioning service operation vessels (C‑CSOVs), ordered by Schoeller Holdings. The vessel, named DO Joule , is being built at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou, China.a
The C-CSOV is scheduled to be delivered in May 2027, with the subsequent vessels handed over at three‑month intervals.
A few days after DO marked the start of the construction of the new vessel, Japanese Mitsui O.S.K. (MOL) announced it was acquiring a stake in the Hamburg-based company. MOL is also acquiring shares in the C-CSOVs that DO currently has under construction.
In 2023, Schoeller Holdings and Deutsche Offshore Schifffahrt established Deutsche Offshore and ordered four C-CSOVs from CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in September 2024.
The C-CSOV vessel class, which Deutsche Offshore Schifffahrt says sets new standards, has been designed by the Norwegian vessel designer Salt Ship Design, and is capable of handling a broad range of above‑ and below‑water operations from construction and commissioning to ongoing operations and maintenance, according to the German shipowner.
The four 96.25‑metre-long and 20‑metre-wide vessels will have a modular working deck with 800 square meters of deck space, a gangway that enables horizontal access to platforms at heights between 12 and 30 metres above the waterline, and a main crane that can be reconfigured within 48 hours between a 50‑tonne active heave-compensated setup and a 10‑tonne 3D‑motion‑compensated mode.
The C-CSOVs will be equipped with DP capabilities, a HiPAP hydroacoustic positioning system, and a 12.4‑tonne helicopter deck.
The new vessels are optimised for installation, maintenance, and repair work, including the deployment of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and also feature a removable daughter craft system, according to Deutsche Offshore Schifffahrt.