Offshore staff
HOUSTON -- Transocean Inc.'s newbuild Enterprise-class drillship has been named Discoverer Americas.
The drillship is designed to work in water depths to 12,000 ft (3,658 m) and to drill wells to a depth of 40,000 ft (12,192 m). The vessel's name reflects both the Norwegian heritage of exploration and one of its key operational roles for Hydro, which is based in Norway, Transocean says.
TheDiscoverer Americas will begin a four-year drilling contract for Hydro in the Gulf of Mexico by 3Q 2009. Construction of the dynamically positioned, double-hull drillship will take place at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME) yard in Okpo, South Korea.
"With the most advanced offshore drilling capabilities in the world, theDiscoverer Americas is aptly named as an exploration and development tool for our client," says Rob Saltiel, senior vice president, North and South America unit.
Already under construction at the DSME yard is one of two other newbuild enhanced Enterprise-class drillships, theDiscoverer Clear Leader, which is already under a five-year contract to Chevron Corp. Transocean's Discoverer Inspiration, also to be built at DSME, will work for Chevron under a five-year contract.
All three of the newbuild drillships will work in the GoM.
6/14/2007
