JUSTIN SMITH, Offshore Editor

To say that there has been a boom in rig orders this year would be something of an understatement. At this time last year, there were 109 rigs under construction at the various shipyards around the world. There are now 162 mobile offshore drilling units being built, according to RigStar, World Oil’s offshore rig database.

The vast majority of these newbuilds are jackups and ultra-deepwater drillships, the bulk of which are being built on spec. Even though only a handful of orders were placed for semisubmersibles and tenders, nearly all of those rigs already have contracts in hand, including Songa’s two Category D semis that will work for Statoil and two tenders that Seadrill is building for contracts in Thailand with Chevron.

The largest single rig order came when Petrobras approved the construction of the first seven of 28 planned deepwater drillships destined to develop Brazil’s massive pre-salt fields. The rigs will be built by Pernambuco-based shipyard Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) at a total cost of approximately $4.64 billion, or roughly $663 million per rig. Petrobras expects the rigs to be delivered in 2015.

A new company, Sete Brasil S.A., has been formed to own the rigs and has already assumed the construction contract with EAS. Sete Brasil is formed by the Caixa Econômica Federal-managed Fundo de Investimentos em Participações - FIP Sondas, which owns 90% of the company, and will have market investors as shareholders, including Brazilian pension funds and investment banks.

Petrobras will hold the other 10%stake in the new company. The Brazilian major has already signed charter agreements for the rigs at rates between $430,000 and $475,000 per day.

Rowan Companies, which has always been a shallow-water driller, has entered into turnkey contracts for the construction of three ultra-deepwater drillships with a cost of approximately $605 million each. The drillships will be constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) at its shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea, and are expected to be delivered in late 2013, mid-2014 and late 2014.

The drillships are going to be built to Gusto MSC's P10000 design and will be able to drill wells to a total depth of 40,000 ft while operating in up to 12,000 ft of water. The DP-3 compliant, dynamically positioned drillships will be equipped with retractable thrusters, dual-activity capability, five mud pumps, dual mud systems and a maximum hook-load capacity of 1,250 tons.

Noble Corporation also placed multiple orders for deepwater drillships this year, contracting HHI to build four. The rigs will be constructed on a fixed price basis with two scheduled for delivery in 2013 and the other two the following year.

The delivered cost of each new drillship is expected to be in excess of $600 million, including the turnkey construction contract, equipment furnished by Noble, project management and spares, but excluding capitalized interest.

The new drillships will also be based on the P10000 design. While they are being built for operations in waters of up to 12,000 ft, they will be delivered fully equipped to operate in up to 10,000 ft of water. The units will be equipped with DP-3 station keeping, the ability to handle two complete BOP systems, and multiple parallel activity features.

Noble chose not to focus only on deepwater rigs this year, as the company also placed orders for six high-specification, heavy-duty, harsh environment jackups with Singapore’s Jurong Shipyard. The rigs are scheduled for delivery at various points between the end of next year and the end of 2014.

The jackups will be built to Friede & Goldman’s JU3000N design, which is an evolution of the JU2000E design. The rigs, which will be approximately 231 ft in length and 270 ft in breadth, will have the ability to operate in water depths up to 400 ft and drill to depths of 30,000 ft. The rigs will each have a 75-ft cantilever reach, 2.5 million lb of hook load capacity, a high-capacity mud circulating system, and a 15,000-psi BOP system. 

HHI continued its excellent year when Diamond Offshore exercised its option to build a third ultra-deepwater drillship with delivery scheduled for the second quarter of 2014. Total cost, including commissioning, spares and project management, is estimated to be approximately $610 million.

Like its previously ordered sister drillships, Ocean BlackHawk and Ocean BlackHornet, the new unit, Ocean BlackRhino, will be dynamically positioned, have a seven-ram BOP, dual activity capability, five mud pumps and a maximum hook-load capacity of 1,250 tons. The drillship will be designed for operations in up to 12,000 ft of water.

Speaking of Ocean BlackHawk and Ocean BlackHornet, Diamond has entered into two drilling contracts with Anadarko for those units. The contracts are expected to generate combined maximum total revenue of approximately $1.8 billion. Through these deals, the drillships are each contracted for five years commencing in late 2013 and early 2014, respectively.

Rig count by region

Falcon Energy Group (FEG) has signed a contract with China Merchants Heavy Industries for the construction of two jackup rigs, with options for two more units. TS Drilling, a recently established subsidiary of FEG, will manage the rigs for the Singapore-based transportation and oilfield services company.

The shipyard, which is located in Shenzhen, China, will build the jackups to GustoMSC's CJ46-X100-D design. When completed, the rigs will be capable of drilling to a total depth of 30,000 ft while operating in up to 350 ft of water. They will be equipped with 18.75-in., 15,000-psi BOP. It is expected that the rigs will be delivered sometime in 2014.

Standard Drilling has returned to Keppel FELS with an order for four KFELS B Class jackups worth $772 million. Successive deliveries of these units are scheduled between the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014.

Standard Drilling ordered its first jackup rig from Keppel FELS in November 2010 with two options. In addition, it acquired two jackups under construction as well as two option rigs from Clearwater Capital Partners in a transaction where Clearwater became the largest shareholder of Standard Drilling.

Standard now has a combined fleet of seven KFELS B Class rigs. Readily upgradable to higher performance capabilities, the rigs will be able to operate in water depths of 400 ft, drilling depth of 30,000 ft and accommodate 120 people.

Finally, Songa Offshore received a letter of award from Statoil for two newbuild Category D semisubmersibles with firm terms of eight years each and options that could extend the contracts to 20 years each. Statoil has an option to award contracts for two additional rigs to Songa.

The firm part of the contract has an aggregated revenue value of approximately $2.5 billion, inclusive of mobilization, with a higher contract value upon program commencement due to escalation provisions taking effect from 2011.

Statoil has awarded the contract for the two new rigs on behalf of the participants in the Troll license. Capable of operating in up to 1,640 ft of water, the units will be capable of drilling wells to 28,000 ft. It will work on mature fields, primarily drilling production wells and completing wells, enabling Statoil to produce more oil from fields like Troll.

Mobilization of the units to Norway will take place as soon as the rigs are delivered from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in the first and third quarters of 2014, respectively. The price to build each semi is $565 million.

DELIVERIES CONTINUE RIGHT ALONG

The other end of the newbuild spectrum is rig deliveries. While there is still time for a few rigs to make it out before the end of the year, 39 units have been delivered so far this year. Of those 39, 14 are jackups, 12 are drillships, 11 are semisubmersibles and two are tenders.

In just the last week of September, three rigs were delivered: a tender, a drillship and a semi. Keppel FELS delivered Vietnam's first semisubmersible drilling tender to PV Drilling. Built to Keppel's KFELS SSDT 3600E design, the rig, named PV Drilling V, is capable of operating in water depths of up to 5,000 ft alongside spars and tension leg platforms. Following its delivery, the unit has been deployed on a multi-year charter to PetroVietnam's Bien Dong POC.

Later that week, on Sept. 29, Ocean Rig, a subsidiary of Greece's DryShips Inc., took delivery of its fourth drillship, Ocean Rig Mykonos, from South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries. The drillship is currently mobilizing for operations in Brazil for Petrobras. Built to the Samsung 10000 design, the unit can drill wells to a total depth of 35,000 ft while working in up to 10,000 ft of water.

The final rig delivered that week was semisubmersible Delba III to Delba Perforadora from IMAC Shipyard in Abu Dhabi on Sept. 30. The rig is the last of the series of three semis IMAC built for the Brazilian contractor, and is slated to work for several years for Petrobras. The GustoMSC TDS 2500-designed unit is able to operate in up to 9,000 ft of water and drill wells to a total depth of 30,000 ft.

The following month, Keppel AmFELS delivered its fourth EXL jackup rig to Rowan. The rig was delivered in October and, after departing from the shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, began its first contract in November with Apache in the US Gulf of Mexico, earning roughly $85,000 per day.

The ABS-classed EXL jackup design is an enhancement of the LeTourneau Super 116E model. With a leg length of 477 ft and hook load capacity of up to 2 million lb, Rowan EXL IV employs technology to drill high-pressure, high-temperature and extended-reach wells. The rig is capable of operating in water depths of up to 350 ft and drilling to a total depth of 40,000 ft.

In addition to the four EXL rigs completed by Keppel AmFELS, the yard is currently working on the construction of a LeTourneau Super 116E jackup for Perforadora Central, which is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2013.

Ensco took delivery in August of semi ENSCO 8504, the fifth of seven ENSCO 8500 Series rigs being constructed by Keppel FELS. The design includes a 35,000-ft nominal rated drilling depth, 2 million lb of hoisting capacity and 8,000 tons of variable load.

Two additional ENSCO 8500 Series semis are currently under construction with deliveries scheduled for the first and second half of next year. The 8500 Series, which is built to operate in up to 8,500 ft of water, may be modified to drill and complete wells in water depths up to 10,000 ft.

After mobilizing to Brunei to complete deepwater sea trials and final outfitting, ENSCO 8504 commenced a 120-day drilling contract with Total. The contract, which will have a day rate of $423,500, has four multi-well options.

And last, but not least, in May Chevron accepted delivery of newly constructed Atwood Oceanics semi Atwood Osprey Fig. 1, which began drilling operations offshore northwest Australia. The rig drilled an exploration well before commencing drilling development wells for the Gorgon project.

Fig. 1. Semi Atwood Osprey prior to starting its contract with Chevron off Australia.

The semi is currently contracted to work for Chevron for three years at a day rate of US$470,000. However, the supermajor has an option to extend the contract into 2017 at a rate of US$450,000 per day.

Atwood Osprey is a sixth generation, Friede & Goldman ExD-designed semi able to drill to a total depth of 32,000 ft while operating in up to 82,000 ft of water. The rig, which cost $650 million to build, was built by Jurong Shipyard for Atwood, which ordered the unit in late 2007.  

New build report