Helix awards Jurong Shipyard $385.5 million order for well intervention semi

Houston headquartered Helix Energy Solutions has placed a $385.5 million order with Singapore’s Jurong Shipyard, a Sembcorp Marine subsidiary. It covers construction of a newbuild semisubmersible well intervention vessel.

Owen Kratz, Helix’s Chairman and CEO, says that the new asset is engineered and designed based on the lessons learned from Helix’s successful Q4000 platform and is being constructed to meet an increasing market demand for specialized deepwater well intervention services worldwide.

“We look forward to the delivery of this new-generation advanced well intervention vessel and plan to expand this business segment even further,” he says.

Scheduled for delivery in January 2015, the semi-submersible well intervention rig will be built based on a naval architectural design by Bassoe Technology of Göteborg, Sweden, with Helix’s equipment layout. Featuring the latest technology, the rig is described as “an efficient purpose-designed platform with capabilities to perform a wide variety of tasks, including conventional and extended top hold drilling, subsea construction, decommissioning well intervention, coiled tubing operations and twin ROV deployment.”

The Dynamic Positioning (DP) class 3 unit has the ability to operate in deepwater operations worldwide, including the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Brazil and West of Africa.

Don Lee, Senior General Manager, Jurong Shipyard’s Offshore Division said, “We are honored that Helix has entrusted us with the construction of this highly specialized deepwater semi-submersible well intervention rig. This rig is Jurong Shipyard’s first specialized platform with well intervention and subsea capabilities and represents a significant advance for us in this growing new market segment. We would like to thank Helix for awarding us this contract, which is a testament to Jurong Shipyard’s rig construction capabilities and versatility in developing purpose-designed solutions for the offshore industry. We are committed to build on this new partnership with Helix and to meet their stringent standards of quality, safety and reliability.”

March 12, 2012