First Sevan Driller Completed in China

Nantong Shipyard Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) completed the construction of a world class drilling unit called Sevan Driller on June 28, 2009.

The 600 million dollar Sevan Driller is a 6th generation semisubmersible unit built for Norwegian offshore service group Sevan Marine ASA.

The rig is designed to include the most advanced drilling capabilities in the industry, based on Sevan's own patented technology. It has a capacity of drilling of wells up to 40,000 feet in water depths of up to 12,500 feet, a variable deck load of more than 15,000 metric tons and high storage capacity of bulk materials, according to Tang Shengtao, manager of the project. It will be equipped with an internal storage capacity of up to 150,000 barrels of oil.

Nantong Shipyard Co., Ltd took part with the design, construction, and facilities installation and testing. The designing and construction took only 24 months to complete, 6 months less than it normally does.

The construction of Sevan Driller helped China embark world marine engineering equipments market and improved China's designing and manufacturing ability in producing deep sea equipments.