It has been a few year since any new offshore drilling rig newbuildings were ordered:
Now it is happening, but not where rigs were traditionally built before:
But at least it will be a well known rig type from a well known US rig design company?
Well yes and no.
LeTourneau is now part of a Singapore company, Seatrium Offshore Technology:
Times have changed since the early 1970s, when those same US Companies set up yards in Singapore (as did Bethlehem) building rigs for US and foreign owners.
Design drawings, machinery and equipment was brought in from the US and the work was supervised by US staff.
Unfortunately the drawings were in US Customary Units, but the steel was not. (Steel was supplied in nearest metric eqv. standard thickness ABOVE)
Likewise the type design were pre-approved by ABS, so “eqv, units” did not need to undergo inclination experiment and light weight survey.
The max. operating weight limits were also the same as for rigs built at US yards.
Stability Booklets were also “standard”, with weight in “kips”. Only the rig name was changed. Chopped and approved by ABS. (USCG if US-flag)
This caused some operational problems.
PS> It took years before the problem was identified and the stability date corrected for the many Bethlehem rigs built in Singapore and China.