[Updated] World's Largest Semi-Submersible Rig Delivered
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has delivered Ocean GreatWhite, the world’s largest semi-submersible drilling rig, to Diamond Offshore, a Houston-based drilling contractor.
Ocean GreatWhite, measuring 123 meters (402 feet) in length and 78 meters (255 feet) in width, is capable of operating in waters up to three kilometers (10,000 feet) deep and drilling down to a depth of 10 kilometers (6.6 miles) from the sea surface. It has an operating draft of 23 meters (77 feet) and a transit speed of about eight knots.
The rig will be chartered to BP for operation in the Great Australian Bight from October this year.
Diamond Offshore has a fleet of 30 drilling rigs, consists of 21 semi-submersibles, four dynamically positioned drillships and five jack-ups. The Ocean BlackHawk was delivered in mid-2014, and sister rigs, the Ocean BlackHornet, Ocean BlackRhino, were delivered at the end of 2014. The fourth newbuild drillship, the Ocean BlackLion, was delivered in the second quarter of 2015. The company also has two deepwater semi-submersible rigs, named Ocean Apex and Ocean Onyx, which were delivered in 2014.
HHI won the order worth $630 million to build the Ocean GreatWhite in 2013 and has delivered four other drillships to the US-based drilling contractor so far. The delivery installment worth 460 billion won ($395 million) HHI received from the client will help improve HHI’s cash flow.
Korea's top three shipbuilders, HHI, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries, lost more than $7 billion between them last year and have secured few orders in 2016.
Record Jackup Delivery
The news follows a record delivery from Sembcorp Marine. The company delivered the world’s largest jack-up rig to Noble Corporation on July 16.
Noble Lloyd Noble, the seventh ultra high-specification harsh environment jack-up rig successfully completed for Noble Corporation, is based on the GustoMSC CJ70 design as well as Statoil’s ‘Category J’ specifications.
The rig is capable of operating in a water depth of up to 150 metres (492 feet) in harsh environmental conditions. It boasts a maximum total drilling depth capacity of 10,000 metres (approximately 33,000 feet).
To be deployed in Statoil’s Mariner field development in the North Sea under a four-year charter arrangement, Noble Lloyd Noble is the first offshore structure of its kind to fully comply with both Norwegian and U.K. regulatory standards. It is uniquely suited for operation over a very large platform or in a subsea configuration.