Rolls-Royce to power offshore drillships

The latest orders, which include options for additional thrusters, are for customers who are expanding their drillship fleets as the industry sees a rise in demand for oil and gas exploration in deep water and severe conditions.

Helge Gjerde, senior vice president, offshore, Rolls-Royce, said: “Numerous drillships with Rolls-Royce thrusters have been delivered in the past few years. We are very pleased to see that customers in this industry continue to have confidence in our abilities to support their business with mission-critical systems, products and services.”

The drillships operate in dynamic positioning (DP) mode, using satellite technology to maintain position without anchoring. The large thrusters being supplied by Rolls-Royce will ensure efficient propulsion and reliability and controlled position keeping during transit to a drilling site and during drilling operations.

Rolls-Royce has also received interest from China with a £12m order to design and equip two platform supply vessels (PSVs) being built by Jiangsu Eastern Heavy Industries Company Ltd. The UT 755 LN vessels are being designed for the transportation of solid and liquid cargo to and from offshore oil and gas platforms world wide and are expected to be delivered in 2014.