Report: South Korea selling its sole offshore drilling rig

While South Korea is widely considered as the world’s largest offshore rig builder, with its shipyard trio Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai delivering dozens, if not hundreds of oil exploration units over the years, the country has only one such rig of its own, and is now selling it.

Namely, South Korea’s national oil company Korea National Oil Corp. is reportedly looking to sell its only offshore drilling rig to save cost.

This is according to Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, who reported on Friday that KNOC was pondering the sale of the Daewoo-built semi-submersible drilling rig Doo Sung to get rid of the maintenance and repair costs for the inactive unit.

Yonhap on Friday said the oil company had offered the 1984-built rig to the Geoje City, but the negotiations have been too long and the company is now eager to sell to a third party.

According to information available on KNOC’s website, the Doo Sung rig has been used for offshore drilling in Korea, Alaska, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Russia, and Indonesia.

VesselsValue website has marked the rig as warm-stacked, meaning if there is a need for it, it might get back to drilling relatively quickly.

According to the website, the rigs value in the open market might reach $17.01, while the demolition value is some $5 million. 

Offshore Energy Today Staff