Aker Solutions to supply drilling packages for Cat D rigs

Aker Solutions has received a Letter of Award from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), to supply two drilling equipment packages to the new “Cat D” drilling rigs the yard is building for the rig operator Songa Offshore. Options (if exercised) for two additional units are included. Contract value is undisclosed.

Work on the project will start immediately in Kristiansand, Norway, and in other Aker Solutions drilling technologies units in Asker, Norway, Erkelenz, Germany and Houston in the U.S..

The development of the two Cat D semi-submersible drilling rigs has been initiated by Statoil, which awarded two long- term contracts for the units to Songa in July 2011.These rigs have been designed for mature fields on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The purpose is to make drilling and completion of production wells less expensive, more effective and safer, and thereby boost oil recovery.

The first two units will be delivered in 2014, and the main deliveries from Aker Solutions will take place in 2012 and 2013. The contract includes topside drilling equipment, procurement and commissioning of the rigs at the DSME yard. The two optional units (if exercised) are scheduled for completion in 2015.

“We are very pleased to win these contracts, which demonstrate the good cooperation between Statoil and the drilling operators and drilling system providers. Together, we have developed a new generation drilling and well intervention design, purpose made for the needs for North Sea operations, through a joint FEED (front end engineering and design) phase. We are also looking forward to continuing the good, long-term collaboration with DSME on this project, the latest addition to a long string of successful joint projects,” says Thor Arne Håverstad, head of Aker Solutions’ drilling technologies business.

August 26, 2011