Keppel FELS has delivered the second of three sister jack-up rigs, the XLE-2 to Maersk Drilling, on budget and seven days ahead of schedule.
The rig, which will be named at a ceremony in Norway next month, is a XL Enhanced (XLE) harsh environment jack-up rig.
It has been customised for operations in the North Sea and has been chartered by Det Norske Oljeselskap (Det Norske) for deployment on the $4.3billion Ivar Aasen project offshore Norway for five years.
This deal is worth around $700million, not counting options for a further two years. Ivar Aasen is Det Norske’s first NCS project as operator.
Claus V Hemmingsen, Maersk Drilling’s CEO, said of the latest handover: “The XLE-2 is part of our series of ultra-harsh environment rigs for the North Sea and enables us to further solidify our strong position in the Norwegian jack-up market.
“These ultra-high specification rigs are preferred by our customers for the safety and efficiency gains they offer.
“This early delivery is the reason Keppel FELS, with their strong track record and technological capabilities, was chosen to build three of the XLE rigs.
“Our combined expertise and common safety, quality and performance standards has enabled us to deliver winning solutions to international oil companies and the industry.”
Mr Chow Yew Yuen, CEO of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), said of last month’s milestone: “Just five months ago, we delivered Maersk Intrepid, the first such rig to Maersk Drilling and we look forward to completing the third rig on time or early, on budget, and safely as well.”
Collaborations between Keppel and Maersk Drilling span the design, engineering, repair and construction of a variety of rigs and ships. The companies have partnered on 12 new-build rig projects to-date, including three out of four XLE class rigs.
The XLE class jack-up has a leg length of 206.8m (678ft) and is designed for year round operations in the North Sea, in water depths to 150m (492ft). They weigh in at around 33,000 tonnes.
This rig design is differentiated from other jack-ups in that it has dual pipe handling capability to allow parallel drilling/tripping operations in concert with stand-building.
The third rig of this design is still under construction at Keppel and another at DSME of South Korea as part of a $2.6billion investment by Maersk. The final two will be delivered next year and in 2016.
The company responsible for transporting the rigs built by Keppel to Norwegian waters is OHT.
Maersk Intrepid has already been delivered to Norway, with the second sister about to follow.
Intrepid is due to go to work for Total E&P Norge during the current quarter. The four-year contract will take the rig into the second half of 2018.
All the XLEs are due to go on long-term contracts in North-west Europe.