Statoil has awarded a contract to COSL Drilling Europe for the charter of the semi-submersible COSL Pioneer.
Plans call for the rig to be used for production and exploration drilling on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), from the middle of this year.
Vidar Birkeland, acting head of procurements for Statoil, said the award would be part of what the semi-state operator regarded as an “ageing rig fleet on the NCS”.
“We aim at a safer and more efficient rig fleet,” said Birkeland.
“With this contract Statoil secures an up-to-date light rig customised for the mid-water segment.
“Our strategy is to increase the diversity, competition and flexibility in the rig market.
“We are therefore also pleased to see new rig companies operating in Norway.”
COSL Pioneer is anything but a light rig.
Newly-constructed, the Chinese-built and owned GM 4000 semi-submersible displaces more than 36,000 tonnes.
It has a design life of 20 years.
Though not classed as a deepwater unit, it has been designed and built to operate in waters across the globe.
Station keeping is maintained by an eight-line mooring system or, in dynamic positioning mode, by a set of six fixed-pitch, variable speed thrusters.
COSL Pioneer is China’s first really large mobile offshore drilling unit and is the first of three similar units on order. The semi-submersible was built by the Yantai Raffles yard in China and was delivered late.
It was designed and constructed in accordance to the requirements stipulated by the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Administration.
COSL’s European subsidiary took delivery on the rig in late November, and is mobilising the unit to Norway ahead of the charter’s start in the summer.
It is not clear what the position is with construction and delivery of the two further heavy-duty drilling units ordered by COSL.
The trio are part of a major investment programme by the Chinese company, with a view to competing more effectively across the global stage. This poses a potential threat to Western players.