Maersk Drilling Names Third XLE Jack-up Rig

 

Maersk Integrator is the third in a series of four ultra harsh environment jack-up rigs to enter Maersk Drilling’s rig fleet. The four jack-up rigs represent a total investment of $2.6 billion. The first three jack-up rigs, including Maersk Intregrator, has now all been delivered from the Keppel FELS shipyard. The fourth will be delivered from the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea in 2016.

 

After delivery from the yard, Maersk Intregator will mobilize to the North Sea and commence a four year firm contract with Statoil for drilling on the Gina Krog field in the Norwegian North Sea. The estimated contract value for the firm contract is $620 million.

 

“With the addition of Maersk Integrator to our fleet, we continue to develop our market leading position in the challenging Norwegian market. With Maersk Integrator we now have three of the world’s largest, ultra-harsh environment jack-up rigs in our fleet, enabling us to provide safe and efficient drilling operations to our customers in the Norwegian market ,” said Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO of Maersk Drilling and member of the Executive Board of the Maersk Group, and continued, “The early delivery and good performance is one of the reasons we continually partner with Keppel FELS. Throughout the construction period of the three XLE’s, they have been able to consistently provide value-added services while delivering products of the highest technical abilities to our satisfaction”

 

With a leg length of 206.8 m (678 ft) the rigs are the world’s largest jack-up rigs and are designed for year round operation in the North Sea, in water depths up to 150 m (492 ft).Uptime and drilling efficiency are maximized through dual pipe handling. While one string is working in the well bore, a second string of e.g. casing, drill pipe or bottom hole assembly can be assembled/disassembled and stored in the set-back area, ready for subsequent transfer for use in the well bore thus reducing the non-productive time. The drill floor features Multi Machine Control - a fully remote operated pipe handling system allowing all standard operations such as stand building and tripping to be conducted without personnel on the drill floor thus ensuring a high level of consistency across crews and an improved efficiency.