CIMC RAFFLES HE Semi Drilling Rig "Deepsea Yantai" Sail Out

June 12th, a harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rig, designed and built by CIMC RAFFLES celebrate the naming ceremony at Yantai Raffles Shipyard. The rig is named after "Deepsea Yantai", which is the first drilling rig named with “Yantai” in the world. "Deepsea Yantai" set sail to North Sea in the afternoon on the same day to perform the drilling charter that was signed in March 2019, between CIMC Offshore AS, a CIMC Norway company,and Neptune Energy, an independent E&P company from Norway.

New series of Drilling Rigs of CIMC RAFFLES, tailor-made for North Sea

"Deepsea Yantai" is the 6th generation harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rig with GM4-D design. It is a series rigs after COSL and "Blue Whale" semi-submersible drilling rigs.

The basic design of series of rigs completed by CIMC RAFFLES and Global Maritime. CIMC RAFFLES has 80% intellectual property of the design, holding 11 major technological breakthroughs and 114 optimization improvements, which increased the working capacity by 19%.

"Deepsea Yantai" has a total length of 106.75 meters, a width of 73.7 meters, the draft is 21 meters, working water depth of 500 meters, and a drilling depth of 8,000 meters, the rig is tailor-made for Norwegian continental and Barents Sea, the rig fulfilled the world's most stringent Norsok standards, can well operated in minus 20 degree which meet the ice class notation, all the peripheral safety equipment of the rig have added anti-icing measures such as electric heating or windproof walls, the windproof wall is installed in the drilling area to ensure that the rig is capable of harsh environment operation. Beyond that, the rig configured the DP3 dynamic positioning system and the 8-point mooring system to fulfill different working conditions.

Establish the friendship between Yantai and Norway to show the strength of Yantai’ manufacture

September of last year, Yantai and Stavanger had established Sister city relations. Stavanger is a global renowned offshore city, and Yantai is building“The City of Offshore Manufacture” in China. With the witness of relevant parties, the rig was named "Deepsea Yantai", it will also build the bridge of friendship between Yantai and Norway, deepen the bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, industry and technology.

In March this year，CIMC RAFFLES and Odfjell Drilling are pleased to announce that Neptune Energy Norge has awarded “Deepsea Yantai” a 6 wells firm plus 10 optional wells drilling contract.

"We believe that the high-quality rig “Deepsea Yantai” with CIMC RAFFLES design and construction, together with the professional operation capability of Odfjell and tremendous strength of Neptune, will become another star rig in North Sea, and will continue to create great achievements and show the strength of Yantai’ manufacture to the world. Simultaneously, it will also serve as a bridge between China and Norway in economy and trade to enhance the mutual friendship," said Li Minggao, Vice President of CIMC RAFFLES.

To date, CIMC RAFFLES has built 12 semi-submersible drilling rigs, among which 10 are classified by DNV-GL, 3 of them are operating in Norway north sea, and have won the awards of “Perfect Well”，“Rig of the Year” and “Rig of the Month” for 8 times. It represents the strength of Yantai in offshore equipment manufacturing and laid the foundation for build “The City of Offshore Manufacture”.

Explore new business models, the disposal of assets has initial results

Since 2014, offshore oil and gas industry has faced severe challenges due to the low price of oil. How to effectively vitalize assets has become a difficult problem for each shipyard who want to transformation and development.

Relying on its domestic and international resources and asset management experiences, OCEAN CHALLENGER of CIMC RAFFLES explores new business models through various channels, and finally facilitated the cooperation and signed the service contract successfully between CIMC OFFSHORE AS, a CIMC Norway company, Odfjell drilling AS and Neptune Energy, an independent E&P company from Norway. This plays a positive demonstration role for vitalizing assets.