Rolls-Royce Delivers 1,000th Drillship Thruster

The 1,000th UUC thruster unit leaves the Rolls-Royce factory in Rauma, Finland. Photo: Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce says it has just delivered its 1000th underwater mountable offshore thruster, the world’s most popular and widely used thrusters for offshore mobile drilling units.

The 1000th unit was the third in a series of six thrusters being installed a newbuild Seadrill drillship currently under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries in Korea.

Rolls-Royce’s UUC thruster range is the market leader in mobile drillship propulsion, with over 70% global market share, according to Rolls-Royce.

John Knudsen, Rolls-Royce, President – Commercial Marine said: “While we are proud of this achievement, the true significance of the milestone is that it demonstrates the trust that our customers place in us to deliver world class propulsion equipment that is mission critical to their successful operations. Developing highly innovative power and propulsion products and systems to support our customers’ needs has always been our focus, and will always be our focus.”

UUC thrusters are used to move a mobile drilling unit from one location to another, and particularly for keeping the unit stationary while in dynamic positioning mode during drilling operations.

As most rigs operate in remote locations, a key feature of the UUC thrusters is that they can be removed and installed underwater without drydocking the vessel.

The UUC line ranges in sizes, from 3 meters to 4.5 meters in diameter.

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