Maersk Drilling’s new XLE jack-up set for North Sea

Danish offshore driller Maersk Drilling has taken delivery of its fourth XLE jack-up rig, the Maersk Invincible, from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) in South Korea.

The company’s fourth and final XL Enhanced ultra harsh environment jack-up was named in South Korea in October 2016. The first three jack-up rigs have been delivered from the Keppel FELS shipyard.

The driller said on Friday, January 6 that Maersk Invincible will now mobilize to the North Sea and will in the second quarter of 2017 start a five-year firm contract with Aker BP for plug and abandonment work on the Valhall field.

With a leg length of 206.8 meters (678 ft.), Marsk says the rigs are the world’s largest jack-up rigs and are designed for year round operation in the North Sea, in water depths up to 150 m (492 ft.).

According to the owner, uptime and drilling efficiency are maximized through dual pipe handling. While one string is working in the well bore, a second string of e.g. casing, drill pipe or bottom hole assembly can be assembled/disassembled and stored in the set-back area, ready for subsequent transfer for use in the well bore thus reducing the non-productive time.

The drill floor features Multi Machine Control – a fully remote operated pipe handling system allowing all standard operations such as stand building and tripping to be conducted without personnel on the drill floor.