Image: HHI
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries announced today it had secured a USD $620 million order to build a drillship for Houston-based drilling contractor Rowan Companies. The contract price includes commissioning, project management, and spares, but excludes capitalized interest.
This contract also includes an option exercisable by Rowan to order an additional same-class drillship. Since June 2011, Rowan has exclusively ordered all four of its drillships with Hyundai Heavy.
Matt Ralls, Rowan’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are very pleased to add a fourth ultra-deepwater drillship to our fleet. The recent three-year contract obtained for our first drillship, the Rowan Renaissance, and strong customer enthusiasm for Rowan’s history of operational excellence, high-specification drillship design and experienced deepwater team, reaffirms our confidence in our expansion into the ultra-deepwater market.”
The Rowan Renaissance struck steel in July 2012 and is expected to be delivered in late 2013. The second and third drillships are expected to be delivered in the second and fourth quarters of 2014, respectively.
Drillships built by Hyundai Heavy use the drillship-specific Gusto P10000 design making the best use of vessel space for drilling. The design helps stabilize the drillship while operating and uses less fuel by making thrusters operate less. A position controlling system, a computer propulsion system, and seven blowout preventers will also be installed to enhance safety.
The drillship will also be equipped with a thruster canister, saving time in maintenance and operating costs. A thruster canister is housing for the thruster, which helps keep the ship in position while it is drilling. Ships with a canister do not need to be drydocked for maintenance as the thruster can be lifted onto the ship when work needs to be carried out. In addition, Rowan plans to equip its drillships with 2,000 feet of additional riser to enable operations in water depths up to 12,000 feet upon delivery. Each drillship will also be equipped with a second BOP for minimizing non-productive time.
The new drillship is scheduled to be delivered by the first quarter of 2015.
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