Norway’s Seadrill is gearing up for drilling off Brazil following the roll out of its latest deep-water semi-submersible West Taurus unit at Singapore rig builder Sembcorp Marine offshoot Jurong Shipyard.
The West Taurus is the second of a series of four semi-submersibles on order, following the delivery of the first, West Sirius in March. The third and fourth units are currently being built at the yard and are expected to be delivered in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The latest rig is scheduled for delivery in November and will be deployed for development drilling operations under a six-year deal with Brazil’s Petrobras. The Brazilian giant has also awarded a similar charter contract for Seadrill’s third unit being built. Sembcorp said that the completion of the West Taurus marks a landmark achievement for Jurong Shipyard as it is the first semi-submersible to be built using the yard’s proprietary “transverse skidding” methodology in combination with the “load-out and mating-in-dock” technique. These latest techniques allow the yard to deliver more than two semi-submersible rigs per year. The Friede & Gioldman Ex-D Millennium Class design can drill up to 37,500 feet in water depths of up to 10,000 feet, while it has 18,000 square feet of usable deck space and is able to carry a variable deck load of up to 8000 tons. “West Taurus will be an invaluable addition to our existing rig fleet and we are confident the yard will continue to deliver excellent results on the other two rigs we have entrusted them,” Seadrill’s president Alf Thorkildsen said.
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