Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M) is set to deliver SOCAR’s newbuild, the recently named Heydar Aliyev semisubmersible drilling rig.
Keppel O&M through its subsidiary in Azerbaijan, Caspian Shipyard Co. (CSC), will deliver the Heydar Aliyev to Caspian Drilling Co., a subsidiary of the state oil company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).
The rig was named Heydar Aliyev at a ceremony in Azerbaijan today (18 May) by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
Built to Keppel FELS' proprietary DSSTM 38M design, the rig has been customized for the Caspian Sea's harsh environment condition. It is the first modern semisubmersible to be almost completely built in Azerbaijan.
The rig is equipped with well control piping, BOP handling and foundations rated for 20,000 PSI, the DSSTM 38M will be the first shallow water semisubmersible to have the capabilities to perform drilling in expanded areas of operation in the oil fields of Azerbaijan.
It is able to work at a drilling depth of up to 40,000ft and operations in 1000m water depth. Designed to be fully moored, the rig will be able to stay in position via an eight-point wire rope mooring system, which is capable of self-contained mooring up to the full range of the water depths of the Caspian Sea.
"The completion of this project adds to Keppel's strong track record of delivering customized value-added solutions to Azerbaijan. The DSSTM 38M design is a technologically advanced rig equipped with the latest safety and environmental features to operate efficiently in the Caspian Sea,” says Chris Ong, acting CEO of Keppel O&M.
"To meet the requirements of our customer, we were able to construct this rig almost completely in-country, a first for land-locked Azerbaijan, by leveraging the synergies of Keppel O&M's network of yards,” says Ong.
CSC undertook the fabrication, integration, testing and commissioning of the rig while its sister yard, Baku Shipyard (a joint-venture yard between Keppel and SOCAR), fabricated the pontoons. In Singapore, besides providing the engineering, procurement and technical support, Keppel FELS also fabricated the columns and bracings which were shipped to Baku through the narrow Volga Don canal.
Jointly developed and owned by Keppel's Deepwater Technology Group and GustoMSC, the DSSTM 38M design is an enhanced design of the successful DSSTM 38 rigs that are operating in Brazil.
CSC is the most established yard in the country and has a track record of completing rigs for the Caspian Sea, having delivered the first semisubmersible (the DSSTM 20 Maersk Explorer), the first jackup rig (Transocean's Trident 20 jackup rig) and the first ice-class floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel built in-country. These projects were done in collaboration with its sister yards in Singapore which fabricated modules that were then shipped through the narrow Volga Don Canal for completion at CSC.
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