U.S. offshore driller Northern Offshore has taken delivery of a new jack-up drilling rig built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (SWS) in China.
The Energy Emerger is a high specification jack-up of the Gusto CJ-46 design rated for water depths up to 375 ft. It is immediately available for contracting and is being offered in various strategically important regions.
Chairman and CEO (Interim) Dr. Yuanhui Sun said, “We are pleased to have taken delivery of the Energy Emerger and I wish to thank our project construction team who worked closely with the shipyard to ensure delivery of a quality built unit. I am confident that the Energy Emerger, operated by our very experienced drilling team, will be able to perform at the highest level for our most demanding of clients.
“As the market improves, I believe we will see increasing numbers of contracting opportunities develop for this unit and our other high specification jack-ups under construction with deliveries over the next two years. The addition of this first new unit to our rig inventory represents an important milestone in Northern Offshore’s strategy to build and operate a next-generation fleet of high-performance jack-ups.”
Old Sold
Northern Offshore has recently sold its two veteran jack-up drilling rigs to Dixtone Holdings, an affiliate of the Perenco Group. The ownership over the jack-up drilling rigs Energy Endeavour and Energy Enhancer – both built in 1982 – was transferred to the new owner on January 2 , 2018.
The jack-ups were previously cold stacked in Rotterdam following completion of drilling contracts in the Southern North Sea region.
In addition, Northern Offshore has entered into management services agreements with the new owner to provide crews and operational support to reactivate and convert both jack-ups to platform support units. Northern Offshore did not reveal the financial details of the sale.
Offshore Energy Today Staff