Offshore staff

SINGAPORE -- COSCO Shipyard Group has signed letter of intent with two wholly owned subsidiaries of Sevan Marine ASA to exercise the options secured earlier to build two Sevan 650 drilling units. Sevan has made prepayment of $7 million to secure steel materials for the two units under the LOI. Formal agreement is expected to be signed at a later time.

Separate agreements also provide further options for six more Sevan platforms.

COSCO Nantong Shipyard, currently building its first Sevan 650 drilling unit contracted in March 2007, will build the two units. The rigs are intended for Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. and Petrobras SA.

The cylinder-shaped Sevan 650 drilling units are designed for operations in ice-free, ultra deepwater, including Barents Sea. The drilling units will have 10,000 ft (3,048 m) of riser storage, an internal oil storage capacity of up to 150,000 bbl of oil, and variable deck load of more than 15,000 metric tons (16,535 tons).

07/16/2008