Cosco Delivers Tender Rig Ahead of Schedule to Seadrill

Singapore-listed Cosco Corporation disclosed Wednesday that its subsidiary, Cosco (Nantong) Shipyard, has successfully delivered a self-erecting tender drilling rig, T-15, to Norway's Seadrill.

The contract between Cosco and Seadrill – which was inked in February last year – stated that the former is required to deliver two drilling rigs to the latter in the first quarter of 2013 and the third quarter of 2013 respectively. This means that Cosco's delivery of T-15, one of the contracted drilling rigs, is ahead of schedule.

T-15 is capable of drilling in waters of up to 6.500 feet, and has a drilling depth capacity of 20,000 feet.

Cosco is contracted to deliver three other similarly-built rigs, T-16, T-17 and T-18, to Seadrill. T-17 and T-18 are two options which Seadrill chose to exercise; the options were given to Seadrill when it inked the contract for T-15 and T-16.

Cosco (Nantong) Shipyard has recently won a number of high-profile offshore services contracts. The company's success comes amid a period where Cosco is looking to diversify from its core shipping business into the more lucrative offshore services market.

Cosco (Nantong) Shipyard's delivery of T-15, follows closely on the heels of the company's recent floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) contract win, where it revealed that it was commissioned to build a $370 million unit for an European client.