Keppel to maintain oil-rig order book

Top offshore oil-rig builder Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) said it would settle for fewer new orders next year and would not build or buy new yards as it is already converting two ship repair facilities.

The chairman of Keppel O&M, a subsidiary of Singapore?s top conglomerate Keppel Corp, said his focus next year would be to maintain the strength of the order book after winning a record 23 new orders this year. “We will not necessarily just build yards to build rigs, it doesn?t really make enough sense,” Choo Chiau Beng, Keppel O&M?s chairman and chief executive, said.

Choo said eight out of Keppel?s 17 yards were able to build new offshore rigs. These include Keppel?s Batangas Shipyard in the Philippines, which was mainly a ship-repair yard and is currently being upgraded to build rigs.