Execution of New Drillship Project – Perspectives from Owner, Class, Builder and Designer

摘要

Drillships have proven to be an attractive type of mobile offshore drilling unit due to their excellent mobility and largevariable load capacity. The technical challenges of the new generation of ultra deepwater drillships include greater efficiencyand increased capability of both facility and hull structural design. Modern ultra deepwater drillship designs, i.e., sixthgeneration and beyond, are capable of operating in water depths of up to 12,000 feet and drilling depths of up to 40,000 ft.These drillships feature new developments in design and operation that require cooperation and collaboration by the designer,builder, owner and classification society. Compared with earlier generation designs, these new ultra deepwater drillshipspresent unique challenges in their design, construction and classification.The paper presents how these challenges were addressed in a recent drillship new construction project from theperspective of the owner, classification society, builder and designer. This includes the design itself, construction techniquesapplied, owner’s requirements and classification design verification. Several special aspects of this drillship, includingMetacentric Height-controlled drilling and variable draft operation, are also addressed.