DrillMAX ICE – Stena To Build Ice-Class Drillship

By John Konrad On May 20, 2008

Ice Class Drillship

Stena drilling has announced plans to build an ice capable drillship. Rigzone tells us:

Stena Drilling is delighted to confirm its order for a new drillship at Samsung Shipyard in Korea at an estimated total delivery price of US $1.15 billion. The vessel will be “ice classed” with additional hull thickness. This order will bring its total fleet to eight units. The existing Stena fleet consists of four semi-submersibles, which are active offshore Norway, Great Britain, Angola and Australia, plus three drillships one of which is operating offshore Brazil and the other two are still under construction at Samsung Korea, but have contractual commitments when delivered.

While arctic exploration is not new to the offshore industry and this design is certainly not the most interesting or potentially dangerous it does appear to be the most expensive of the (now) 26 drillships currently being built worldwide.

You can view photos of here sister ship’s being built HERE and on the company’s website HERE.

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About The Author

John Konrad

Captain John Konrad is co-founder of Unofficial Networks, Editor In Chief of this blog and author of the book Fire On The Horizon. He is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage and, since graduating from SUNY Maritime College, has sailed a variety of ships from ports around the world. John currently lives in Morro Bay, California with his wife and two children.