Hercules Offshore orders jack-up rig in Singapore

Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiary Jurong Shipyard has secured a US$236 million (about S$296 million) contract to build a high specification, tailor-made jack-up rig for new customer Hercules North Sea Ltd.

Scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2016, the jack-up rig will be built based on the Friede & Goldman JU 2000E design which has enhanced features suitable for UK operations. The new rig is designed to operate in waters of 400 feet and drill to depths of 30,000 feet.

The rig will be equipped with 2,000,000 lbs drilling capacity, 6,000 barrels mud capacity, 28,000 kips preload capacity for the legs and 150-man accommodation capacity.

Upon delivery, the rig will be chartered out to Maersk Oil and Gas for deployment in the UK sector of the North Sea.

Hercules North Sea Ltd is a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Hercules Offshore, Inc. (ticker: HERO), a global leader in jack-up drilling and liftboat services with a fleet of 36 jack-up rigs and 24 liftboats.

William Gu, Jurong Shipyard’s General Manager of Offshore Division, said: “We are honoured to work with Hercules Offshore and we would like to congratulate Hercules Offshore in clinching the contract from Maersk Oil and Gas. This reaffirms Jurong Shipyard’s position as a customer-oriented yard in providing tailor-made rig designs and solutions for our customers.”

John T. Rynd, Chief Executive Officer and President of Hercules Offshore, said: “We are pleased to partner with Jurong Shipyard as we believe in Jurong Shipyard’s strong track record in delivering quality rigs customised for our clients. We look forward to our new friendship with Jurong Shipyard and a robust future partnership.”

This latest contract brings Sembcorp Marine’s total new orders secured in 2014 to-date to S$1.93 billion. Including this new contract, the Group’s net order book stands at S$13.2 billion, with deliveries extending into 2019.