All four tankers were built in the Bassin C dock of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards at Saint Nazaire, France.

While being the largest ships ever built by gross tonnage until Pioneering Spirit, the four Batillus-class ships were the second largest ever constructed when measuring deadweight tonnage or length overall, behind only the supertanker Seawise Giant (renamed five times, including to Knock Nevis), which existed from 1979 to 2010.

[7] While there were minor differences between the four Batillus-class ships, they all approached a gross tonnage (GT) of 275,000 and 555,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT) tonnage, and had a length overall of over 414 metres (1,358 ft) (longer than all but a few of the tallest skyscrapers in the world).

The Batillus class had a depth of nearly 36 metres (118 ft 1 in) from the main deck and a full load draft of 28.5 metres (93 ft 6 in), the greatest of any vessel, and slightly greater than the two Globtik Tokyo-class Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCCs).

As a result, in the event of an engine or other failure, they could continue operation with the remaining propeller and boiler.