Just when you thought that the boom in orders for newbuild drillships was reaching its inevitable end comes this news!
Noble orders its fourth ultra-deepwater drillship this year
[LEFT]By gCaptain Staff[/LEFT]
Noble Corporation said today that it has exercised its option with Hyundai Heavy Industries for the construction of an additional ultra-deepwater drillship, the companies fourth this year. The drillship will be built at HHI’s shipyard in Ulsan, Korea, and is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2014.
“We continue to see an increase in deepwater demand, both near and longer-term,” said David W. Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Noble Corporation. “This view is bolstered not only by geologic successes in the traditional regions offshore the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, but also by emerging regions offshore West Africa, Indonesia, the Black Sea, India and eastern Africa. With the addition of this fourth HHI newbuild drillship, by 2014 Noble will have one of the newest, most versatile and technologically advanced floater fleets in the industry with a total of 28 units, 16 of which will be dynamically positioned.”
The new drillship will be based on a Hyundai Gusto P10000 hull design and is designed for operations in waters of up to 12,000 feet. The unit will be equipped with DP-3 station keeping, the ability to handle two complete BOP systems, and multiple parallel activity features that improve well construction and overall project efficiencies, including a heave compensated construction crane to facilitate deployment of subsea production equipment. The drillship will also have accommodations for up to 210 personnel, in addition to a number of other operational enhancements beyond the shipyard’s base specifications.
The expected price tag of the drillship is $630 million. Noble still has an option for one more drillship under the agreement with Hyundai.
I work for these people but only found out about this one here on gCaptain! Great job guys…I’m truly impressed! Anyway, this one is now the 18th newbuild drillship ordered since January. Virtually all from the big 3 yards in Korea and scheduled to be delivered before the end of 2014.
This surely must stop someday…how can it continue?
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Wonder If they know what a Chief Engineer is yet?
[QUOTE=mainecheng;54922]Wonder If they know what a Chief Engineer is yet?[/QUOTE]
…not yet!
[QUOTE=c.captain;54928]…not yet![/QUOTE]
[B]…hmmm maybe I should apply.[/B]
These drilling companies have still got a jack-up mentality and the corrupt flag states are accomplices in this idiocy of no engineers or only rig mechanics are needed. The drilling majors, Transocean, Noble etc., are the leading proponents of the idea that the only thing that matters is the drill floor, everything else is just overhead therefore, who needs a qualified licensed chief engineer; even on one of the most mechanically technologically advanced pieces of equipment in existence? No cargo ship in the world would be allowed to sail without a chief and an accompaniment of licensed engineers and they aren’t even DP. We’re talking about DP III drillships for god’s sake ! It’s a disaster waiting to happen and they have all been warned but then they were warned about having minimally qualified “MODU engineers” [wtf is a MODU engineer?] and no QMEDs on semisubs but nothing was done. See Deepwater Horizon’s stellar maintenance program to understand how well that worked out, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Actually the NB1 has to have an unlimited chief and a 2nd engineer when drilling because the Liberia Safe Manning Certificate mandates them but the point is that the company doesn’t treat the chief as a chief and in fact doesn’t have licensed engineers in their job description manual but they do have an RMS, senior mechanic, etc… This is wrong and needs to be corrected before Noble will be able to attract and retain qualified and talented marine engineers. I agree entirely that an RMS cannot run a ship’s engineroom unless he happens to be an unlimited chief as well (and some do exist such as one on the NB2).
The company that has gotten away with murder is ENSCO who to this day does not have to carry ANY unlimited tonnage licenses on their ENSCO 7500 and ENSCO 8500 series of semis. Only an OIM, barge supervisor, barge engineer, a couple of BCOs and a couple of AB/MODUs…just like any moored semi. Their DP semis are classed as non self propelled! Bullshit and now that they own Pride International, I wonder how they are reacting to needing a marine crew on their drillships? Can’t imagine that they like it too much.
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