Rowan orders two drillships for 12,000 ft of water

June 1, 2011
A subsidiary of Rowan Cos. Inc. entered into turnkey contracts with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. for the construction of two ultradeepwater drillships at a cost of $605 million each.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 1
-- A subsidiary of Rowan Cos. Inc. entered into turnkey contracts with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. for the construction of two ultradeepwater drillships at a cost of $605 million each.

HHI will build the drillships at its Ulsan, South Korea, shipyard. Rowan expects delivery of the drillships in late 2013 and mid-2014.

Rowan said the construction cost includes commissioning, project management, owner-furnished equipment, spares, and rig inventory, but excludes capitalized interest. The agreement with HHI also includes an option for an additional drillship of the same specification, exercisable in this year’s third quarter, for delivery in the last quarter of 2014.

The drillships will have a GustoMSC P10,000 design and will be capable of drilling to 40,000 ft in as much as 12,000 ft of water.

Other features of the drillship include:

• DP-3 compliant and dynamic positioning with retractable thrusters, dual-activity capability, five mud pumps, dual mud systems and a maximum 1,250-ton hook-load capacity.

• Seven-ram blowout preventer stack incorporating full acoustic backup control and storage and handling facilities for a second BOP that will minimize well and between well nonproductive time.

• Hull integration with below-deck riser storage, 4 million lb riser tensioning, main load path active-heave drawworks with crown-mounted compensation, three 100-ton knuckle boom cranes, an active-heave 165-ton crane for simultaneous deployment of subsea equipment, a 20,000-ton variable deck load capacity, and accommodations for 210 personnel.

Rowan said the $605 million construction cost is based on a 12,000-ft water depth capable rig equipped with 10,000 ft of riser in order to enable a comparison to previous newbuild drillship announcements by other companies. But it intends to equip these rigs with 2,000 ft of additional riser so that they can drill in up to 12,000 ft of water.

The company said it also will incur costs of about $50 million/drillship for the additional equipment mentioned previously and for operational training and personnel ramp-up.