Norway: Inocean Wins Contract for New Drillship Design

COSCO (DALIAN) SHIPYARD CO LTD have awarded Inocean a contract for development and basic design of a new compact ultra deepwater drillship, INO-80, suitable for global operation. The design is being introduced to the market for the first time on tuesday (May 3th) in Houston at OTC 2011 today.

“We are delighted to partner up with Inocean for this important project,” says Mr Xu Liangheng, General Manager of Offshore Project Management Headquarter, COSCO Shipyard Group. “This design solution will allow COSCO and Inocean the opportunity to showcase their wide-ranging capabilities within the drilling segment. The demand for drill ships is strong, and we believe that this compact and cost effective design will have a great potential in this market”.

Jon Erik Borgen, CEO of Inocean AS, follows up, saying: “COSCO and Inocean have during the years worked closely together in several major projects, including, heavy lift vessels, FPSOs and drill ships. The approach will be the same for INO-80, where Inocean will contribute with its high-end engineering and design expertise and COSCO with its strong execution ability. Depending on the response in the market, we believe the first unit will be delivered in Q1 2014,” says Borgen.

INO-80 is a compact dynamically positioned drillship with large free deck areas, designed for year-around operations in ultra deep waters. The vessel has well planned utility arrangement with safe and reliable material handling. The hull is shaped for cost efficient and easy fabrication, as well as for challenging conditions during station keeping and transit. INO-80 features for exploration, appraisal and development drilling.

COSCO Shipyard Group Co., Ltd. (COSCO Shipyard) is a leading group company in China for ship repair and conversion, which has seven major subsidiary companies strategically located in the most important sites along China’s coastal line: Dalian, Lianyungang, Nantong, Qidong, Shanghai, Zhoushan, and Guangdong. Equipped with thirteen multifarious docks, COSCO Shipyard has accumulated extensive experiences in the field of ship repair and conversion through incessant encouragement and cooperation from valuable customers of Greece, Germany, Denmark, USA, Japan UK and etc.

Cosco Shipyard has for the last decade focused towards offshore shipbuilding projects, especially at the new shipyard in Quidong and at the shipyard in Dalian. Cosco Shipyard has successfully delivered semi submersible and mono-buoy drilling units, and is in the process of finalizing their first drillship Dalian Developer.

Inocean is a dedicated and innovative naval architecture company delivering design and engineering services to the maritime industry worldwide. Our core competence is mainly within conversion and new-builds of floating drilling and production units for the oil and gas industry. The company plays a role in several of the largest and most demanding projects in progress in these areas – in Norway and internationally. Inocean is headquartered at Aker Brygge in Oslo and do also have offices in Poland, Sweden and Brazil.

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Source: Inocean, May 6, 2011.