Seventh drill tender delivered

West Jaya is built to Keppel’s KFELS SSDT 3600E design which the company says is recognised for its eco-friendly features and sustainable operations. Seadrill is inegotiating with BP Trinidad & Tobago for West Jaya to work in the Immortelle field for two years.

The vessel was named at Keppel FELS by Lady Sponsor Mrs Marie Chew, spouse of Marcus Chew, director of business development at Seadrill. West Jaya has enhanced mooring capabilities and features a crane capacity of 250 tonnes, four mud pumps and accommodation for 160.

Alf Ragnar Løvdal, senior vice president of Seadrill Asia Pacific, said, “The six previous tender rigs we built here have established themselves firmly in the market with a solid track record. In fact, we are seeing strong interest from oil companies for the tender rig concept with a view towards new and higher capacity units. The success of the KFELS SSDT design is a result of the winning partnership we have built with Keppel FELS. With West Jaya, they have again delivered an exceptional product that will provide value-added solutions for our customers. “

Wong Kok Seng, managing director of Keppel FELS, said, “The fact that we are delivering the seventh consecutive KFELS SSDT to Seadrill speaks of the success of this design. Through it, Seadrill is today the world leader in the drilling tender market. Keppel is proud to be a partner as the foremost designer and builder of SSDTs and other offshore mobile rigs. As a partner for solutions, we are always keen to team up with trend-setting customers to develop solutions for the offshore oil and gas industry. We look forward to continue supporting Seadrill in their fleet expansion and further strengthen their capabilities in the tender assist market.”

The first of Seadrill’s KFELS SSDT fleet, West Pelaut, was designed and built by Keppel FELS in 1994. Developed by Keppel’s Deepwater Technology Group, the KFELS SSDT is designed to operate in deep waters of up to 5,000ft, allowing drilling tenders to be deployed next to deepwater floating platforms. The KFELS SSDT has operated in a variety of challenging environments in Southeast Asia andWest Africa. With this latest delivery, Keppel FELS has successfully completed six KFELS B Class jackup rigs and seven KFELS SSDTs for Seadrill. This is in addition to the first jackup, West Epsilon, built for Seadrill in 1993. Keppel AmFELS in the US has previously built five jackups for a Seadrill subsidiary, Scorpion Offshore, while at Keppel Shipyard, three FRSUs were delivered to Golar LNG, a subsidiary of Seadrill.