Pieter Heerema, President of Allseas Group, is steering the company into the frontier of deep-sea mining, leveraging advanced offshore engineering to pioneer sustainable methods for extracting critical minerals from the ocean floor.
Under his leadership, Allseas has transitioned from traditional offshore construction to becoming a key player in the nascent industry of seabed resource harvesting.
Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Heerema is of Dutch nationality. He holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology (2006) and an MBA from INSEAD (2011).
He began his career at Philips Electronics in the Netherlands as a product developer and project manager from 2007 to 2010. In 2011, he joined Allseas as a pipeline engineer, later serving as Vice President Projects and a member of the board, overseeing global projects in engineering, production, and safety.
In September 2022, he succeeded his father, Edward Heerema, as President and Chief Executive of Allseas Group.
Under Pieter Heerema's direction, Allseas has made significant strides in deep-sea mining. In 2022, the company conducted successful trials of its pilot nodule collection system, retrieving 4,500 tons of polymetallic nodules from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean.
The system is being scaled up to achieve a production capacity of 1.3 million tons of wet nodules per year, with the upgraded system expected to be ready by the fourth quarter of 2024.
Heerema has been a vocal advocate for the role of deep-sea mining in the energy transition, emphasizing the necessity of critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy technologies.
Despite environmental concerns and calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining by various organizations and countries, Heerema argues that responsible and sustainable extraction methods can mitigate ecological impacts.
He maintains that Allseas is committed to developing technologies that minimize environmental disruption while meeting the growing demand for essential minerals.
Pieter Heerema envisions Allseas at the forefront of sustainable deep-sea mining, balancing technological innovation with environmental responsibility.
The company's ongoing efforts to refine and scale its nodule collection system reflect a commitment to pioneering methods that align with ecological preservation and the global push for clean energy.
