Largest Deep-Sea Drilling Ship Under Construction in Dalian

Construction of the world's largest deep-sea drilling ship got underway Sunday, August 22, at the China Ocean Shipping Company’s (COSCO) Dalian shipyard in northeastern China's Liaoning Province.

When complete the Dalian Pioneer will have a hull over 950 ft long and more than 1,640 ft wide. It will be able to operate in waters up to 10,000 ft deep and the capacity to more than 30,000 ft. The Pioneer will also have the capacity to store a million bbl of crude oil.

This is China's first drilling ship construction project to be completed under one contractor and also the first deep-water drilling vessel built by the country. COSCO is funding the project with Germany's Deutsche Verkehrs-Bank (DVB) at a cost of $500 million USD.

Vantage Drilling is managing the construction and marketing of the drillship and floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO). Construction is expected to be complete in February 2012.