Offshore staff

SINGAPORE -- Keppel Shipyard Ltd. has secured a $99-million contract to install equipment packages on a new drillship.

The new hull for the vessel is under construction in China and is due to arrive at Keppel Shipyard in 3Q 2008. Keppel Shipyard expects to complete its part of the work by 4Q 2009.

Keppel's scope of work includes installation and integration of the owner-supplied thrusters and power generation and drilling equipment packages.

The drillship is designed to operate in water depths to 3,658 m (12,000 ft) and is fitted with DP-2 capabilities.

Nelson Yeo, Keppel Shipyard executive director, says the contract brings to the fore the group's project management expertise and capabilities in converting and integrating offshore exploration and production vessels.

"Owners can choose to outsource the construction of bare hull elsewhere. This can be beneficial to us because our valuable fabrication capacity can be made available to carry out other value-added work," Yeo says.

7/13/2007