Deepsea Yantai, a newbuild semi-submersible drilling rig destined for operations in Norway, has been launched in China.
On June 12, the naming ceremony for the semi-submersible drilling rig, designed and built by CIMC Raffles, was held in Yantai Yard, the builder said in a press statement.
This rig departed for the North Sea on the afternoon of the same day to execute the service contract which was signed at March between Neptune and CIMC RAFFLES, it said.
Deepsea Yantai is the sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling rig and applies to the harsh environment in polar regions. It’s a new series of products of CIMC Raffles besides COSL series and the "Blue Whale" series.
The series adopts GM4-D design, and the basic design is provide by CIMC Raffles and Norwegian Global Maritime. CIMC Raffles owns 80% of independent intellectual property rights, and bear all detailed design and construction design. There are 11 major technology breakthroughs and 114 improvements were realized, and the platform operational capabilities increased for about 19%.
The North Dragon drilling rig is equipped with NOV new designed offline stand building system with the length of 106.75 meter, the width of 73.7 meter and the draught capacity of 21 meter. It is able to operate at a water depth of up to 500m and drill wells down to 8,000m.
It is designed for operating in the Norwegian continental shelf and the Barents Sea. It is capable of operating at - 22℃ which meets the Ice-class requirement. It is equipped with DP3 and 8-point mooring system.
All the peripheral safety equipment of the platform have equipped anti-icing measures such as electric heating or windproof walls; the windproof wall is installed in a large area of the drilling area, which ensure that the platform can work normally in a cold environment.
The platform meets Norsok (Norwegian Petroleum Industry Technical Regulations) standards that are the world's most stringent standards, and were classified by the Norwegian Classification Society. NORSOK and NPD Standards and is classed by DNV.
Yantai and Stavanger became Friendship City in last end of year. Stavanger is a world well-known offshore city, and Yantai is turning to Offshore Manufacture City. For enhance the friendship of the two cities, this rig was named as Deepsea Yantai with the witness of relate parties.
This March, CIMC RAFFLES signed the service contract with international oil and gas explore and product company Neptune under the cooperation of rig service subcontractor Odfjell. This contract covers the lease of six wells and alternative lease of 10 wells, and the operation would be executed by Deepsea Yantai.