Stena Drilling preparing for Evolution: new ultra-deepwater drillship addition to its fleet

UK-based offshore drilling contractor Stena Drilling is preparing for the latest addition to its fleet of drilling rigs, the Stena Evolution.

Stena Drilling revealed the name and colours of the newbuild drillship via social media channels on Thursday.

According to its owner, the Stena Evolution will be a technologically advanced 7th generation ultra-deepwater drillship, demonstrating Stena Drilling’s continued commitment to driving innovation and performance in the ultra-deepwater sector.

Stena Drilling CEO, Erik Rønsberg, commented: “The Stena Evolution will be a fantastic addition to our fleet of high specification drilling units; one which will provide added value to prospective clients through a combination of new technologies alongside Stena Drilling’s excellent HSE and Operational performance.”

Stena Drilling has not shared any other details about the drillship other that more information will be coming soon.

Having in mind that the drilling contractor revealed late last year it had secured an option with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy to buy a newbuild drillship, Offshore Energy has reached out to Stena, asking whether the Evolution drillship is the one from the South Korean shipbuilder.

Stena’s Rønsberg confirmed for us that this is indeed the drillship that Stena secured an option at Samsung Heavy last year.

As a reminder, Stena said last year it would buy the drillship from Samsung if it manages to secure a suitable contract. However, the initial news about the drillship sale actually first came from Samsung.

The shipbuilder said in early December 2021 it had agreed to sell the drillship to the then-unnamed European company for a price tag of $245 million. It also stated that the buyer would need to confirm the delivery by 15 October 2022, otherwise, Samsung could cancel the deal and keep the $15 million deposit. The delivery was scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.

Rønsberg also told us the company is actively marketing the drillship for worldwide opportunities but the purchase option remains as such until the contract has been secured.

“We have a Stena Drilling project team in place for the ship now and are working on several initiatives for the ship,” he said.

The final specifications for the drillship will be confirmed together with an operator.

Previously, Rønsberg said Stena would fit the drillship according to its specifications with hybrid technologies, including the use of batteries.

What we know so far about this drillship is that it was ordered by Ocean Rig before it was acquired by Transocean, which happened in 2018, and it was supposed to be delivered under the name Crete.

Namely, Ocean Rig in 2013 and 2014 ordered two drillships, Ocean Rig Santorini and Ocean Rig Crete. After some delays, the drillships were expected to be delivered in 3Q 2019 and 3Q 2020, respectively. However, before the delivery was able to take place, Ocean Rig was acquired by Transocean and the drillships were never delivered as Transocean cancelled the orders in September 2019.

The Crete is a 7th generation enhanced integrated design deepwater drillship. The rig has dual activity capabilities and is designed for drilling operations in water depth up to 3,650m and is dynamic positioned, DPS 3.

When it comes to the fate of the other, former Ocean Rig drillship, Santorini, Samsung Heavy delivered it to Italy’s Saipem back in November 2021 for a two-year charter contract. Saipem also has an option to buy the drillship, which can be used at its discretion depending on the trend of demand.

The Italian company believes that the Santorini drillship will increase its production capacity and allow it to meet the demand at a stage where its current offshore drilling fleet had almost full contractual coverage.

It is worth noting here that the company, which has been experiencing financial woes, has recently decided to focus more on its core oil and gas offshore drilling activities. Not long after, the Italian company managed to secure a contract valued ad $325 million for a drilling campaign offshore Norway.