Offshore staff

SINGAPORE -- Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd. subsidiary Keppel FELS Ltd. will deliver its first jackup ahead of time to Qatar's national drilling company, Gulf Drilling International Ltd.

Built to Keppel's proprietary KFELS B Class design, the first rig will be named Al-Khor after one of Qatar's historical cities.

Minister Lim Boon Heng of the Prime Minister's office of the Republic of Singapore and S Al-Shirrawi, chairman of the board of directors of GDI and finance director of Qatar Petroleum, attended the rig's inauguration ceremony at Keppel FELS in Singapore Friday, Nov. 4.

The Al-Khor jackup was built to GDI's specifications for operation in water depths to 91 m (300 ft) and drilling depth to 9,144 m (30,000 ft). The rig has accommodations for 110 and is readily upgradeable for higher drilling capabilities in water depths to 122 m (400 ft).

Based in Doha, GDI is a 60/40 joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Japan Drilling Co. GDI is Qatar's first offshore and onshore drilling company.

11/26/2006