Songa takes delivery of its fourth and final Cat D rig

Songa Offshore on Thursday took delivery of its fourth and final Cat D rig, Songa Enabler, from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in Korea.

Songa Enabler is the last rig in a series of four Category D rigs specifically built for and contracted to Statoil.

According to its owner, Songa Enabler will shortly depart South Korea en route to Norway in order to start an eight-year drilling contract with Statoil, with the first assignment on the Snøhvit field offshore Norway.

Songa informed that the transit will take place with tow-assist and the rig will arrive in Norway with all third party equipment installed and ready for the client’s final acceptance testing. The start of drilling operations is expected to take place in the third quarter of 2016.

Cat D rigs dispute

Songa Enabler is a sixth generation, high specification, harsh environment, fully winterized, midwater rig designed for year around drilling, completion, testing and intervention operations in water depths up to 500 meters. The rig is certified DP3.

Back in July 2015, the South Korean shipyard sought arbitration against the offshore driller regarding the construction contracts for Songa Offshore’s Cat D semi-submersible drilling rigs.

The shipyard asserted a claim of $179 million related to the first of four Cat D rigs, Songa Equinox, along with a request for repayment of liquidated damages in a total amount of $22 million.

Songa’s view was that DSME was responsible for the delays and any attempt to recover cost overruns was of no merit due to the “turn-key” nature of the construction contract.

Afterwards, Songa launched a counterclaim against DSME due to the shipyrd’s alleged failure to fulfil its obligations during the engineering and construction of Songa’s four Cat D rigs.

The case further developed in March 2016 with Songa submitting its defence in the arbitrations regarding the first two Cat D rigs, Songa Equinox and Songa Endurance.

Offshore Energy Today Staff