DSME Has Won Drillship Construction Order
South Korean shipbuilder, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), has announced that it has been awarded a drillship order by a South Korean consortium led by the state-run Korea National Oil Corporation. The vessel measures 100 m in length and 40 m in width, and has a maximum 6,000-m drilling depth capacity. The vessel will be used for an oil exploration project in the large Zhambyl oilfield in Kazakhstan.
Given that the vessel’s operation area, the Caspian Sea, is surrounded by land on all sides, DSME plans to complete construction using its Mangalia shipyard in Romania, as well as local shipyards in the Caspian Sea region. If oil is found in the Zhambyl oil field, oil production is likely to begin in 2018, and DSME expects that more orders for production facilities and plants needed for oil development would follow. With this drill ship order, DSME has so far secured orders for fifteen vessels and two offshore products this year, raising USD 1.59 billion.