Approval on Chinese Construction Capability of Semi Submersible Drilling Rig from Global Mainstream Market date:2012-02-10
Approval on Chinese Construction Capability of Semi Submersible Drilling Rig from Global Mainstream Market
--Contract Signing of the North Dragon between North Sea Rigs As and CIMC Raffles
On Feb. 10th, 2012, at 3:00pm, Mr. Stephen Adshead, President of North Sea Rigs As (hereinafter referred as NSR) concludes the signing of shipyard contract of North Dragon, a North Sea deep water semi-submersible drilling rig, with Yu Ya, President of Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd. (hereinafter referred as CIMM Raffles) in Beijing. This contract is another new order of CIMC Raffles after the COSLProspector signed two months ago.
North Dragon is able to operate at water depth up to 1200m and drill wells down to 8000m at a temperature of minus 25 degree Celsus which meet the Ice-Tclass. It is equipped with DP3 and 8point mooring system. The rig is designed to North Sea environment but also other regions such as Arctic and Barents Sea which can resist the strongest storm in North Sea. It fulfils the requirements of NMD, NORSOK and NPD Standards and classed by DNV.
Compared with other drilling rigs operating in North Sea, the hull of North Dragon is smaller and has a less lightship weight which reduces the construction and operation cost. The rig adopts the high power thrusters and the speed is faster and has a stronger capability in dynamic positioning. And also it meets the classification rules requirements of towing in ice. The rig uses the NOV drilling package. The drilling process has a high level of automation and can carry offline stand building operation which will improve the drilling efficiency by 25% estimated by Statoil.
The atrocious sea condition of North Sea and Arctic Ocean requires that the rig must have high level ability. The shipyards which have this kind of project design and building construction experience usually distributing in Korea, Singapore, and Europe. CIMC Raffles will fulfill the main design, the procurement of materials and equipment, construction, commissioning and drilling package commissioning of North Dragon contract. This is the first Semi Submersible drilling rig which all kindred works are completed by the contractor in domestic.
North Dragon adopts GM4-Ddesign.The basic design is undertaken by CIMC Raffles and Global Maritime. CIMC Raffles will independently complete the detail design and own the whole intellectual property. The design is improved based on the collaborative experiences of the previous three North Sea Semi Submersible drilling rigs with GM4000d design and also the requirements of Statoil’s CAT-D design and others. Both the work performance and comfort level has been improved significantly.
As an indispensable part of the “Twelfth five-year-plan” of our state, the offshore equipment is the representative of high-end manufacturing and strategic new industry, which is with high risk, high tech and high input; and the semi-submersible drilling rig is always considered as the sparkling pearl of this industry, drawing close attention from manufacturers all over the world. In recent years, many oil companies have the exploitation accelerated in marginal fields, and extended the operations to arctic area. Meanwhile a series of vital oil discovery in the North Sea and Barents Sea have proven the rich oil and gas resource in this area.
The equipments start off before the others in oil& gas exploit. North Dragon will be the fifth semi-submersible drilling rig built by CIMC Raffles, and three of the former four rigs have already been leased by Statoil. COSLPioneer finished the wildcat well at Oct. 10th, 2011 at Sleipner oil field, with No. 1 in two specific indicator ranking, and No. 4 in comprehensive ranking among more than ten rigs at the same area. COSLPioneer made oil discovery near south Gullfaks, when drilled the second wildcat well, which added 50 to 1000 million barrels of oil for Statoil. This important event enables the CIMC Raffles’ project to have a place in global mainstream market. COSLInnovator is delivered at Oct. 21st, 2011, and now is sailing at Indian Ocean towards the North Sea, planning to arrive at Norway in March of 2012. The COSLPromoter finished sea trial at Feb. 6th, 2012. The contract of COSLProspector is signed on Dec. 1st, 2011. This project is in progress of engineering, kick-off starts at this July.
The Barents Sea is with the most complicated condition for exploit. The series of delivery and contract signing of semi-submersible drilling rigs indicates Chinese offshore capability gained the approval from global mainstream market. The signing of North Dragon will for sure improve the development of our nation’s offshore industry.