Report: DSME delivers new drillship to Transocean

South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has reportedly delivered a newbuild drillship to Transocean, world’s largest offshore drilling contractor.

South Korean news websites Yonhap and Pulse have both informed of the delivery citing a statement by DSME.

Offshore Energy Today has reached out to Daewoo, seeking confirmation of the delivery. We will update the article when we get a response.

In the meantime, the website of Transocean, which recently sold all of its jack-up rigs to focus on deepwater operations, shows there are four ultra-deepwater drillships on order, set to be delivered to the company.

The first in line for delivery is Deepwater Pontus, a DSME 12000 ultra-deepwater drillship. We have contacted Transocean asking for a confirmation that the vessel reportedly delivered is indeed the Deepwater Pontus. Transocean did not respond to our inquiry.

Transocean’s website shows the drillship will start its ten year contract with Shell in the fourth quarter of 2017, at a dayrate of $519,000.

To remind, back in 2012, Shell hired Transocean’s four drillships, all ordered at DSME, for ten years each. One of these drillships, the Deepwater Thalassa, started its contract with Shell in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in February 2016.

A few months later, the second drillship, the Deepwater Proteus, also reached the Gulf of Mexico, starting the contract with Shell, leaving two more drillships, the Deepwater Pontus and Deepwater Poseidon, to be delivered from the South Korean shipyard.

The contract for the final rig, the Deepwater Poseidon, is expected to start in the first quarter of 2018.

All four drillships have been designed to operate in water depths of up to 12,000 feet and drill wells to 40,000 feet.

Offshore Energy Today Staff