Lady Sponsor Mrs Anne-Marie Hood (centre), wife of Guest-of-Honour Mr Peter Hood, Executive Director-Chief Executive Officer of Coogee Resources, graced the christening of West Atlas. With them are Mr Ian Shearer, Senior Vice President Jackup Division of Seadrill (third from left), Mrs Jocelyn Shearer and Mr Tong Chong Heong, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Keppel O&M..
Keppel FELS Limited (Keppel FELS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has delivered the third KFELS B Class design jackup drilling rig to Seadrill Limited (Seadrill), within budget and ahead of time.
This rig was named West Atlas by Lady Sponsor Mrs Anne-Marie Hood, wife of Mr Peter Hood, Executive Director - Chief Executive Officer of Coogee Resources Limited. He also graced the ceremony as Guest-of-Honour.
At the naming ceremony, Mr Tong Chong Heong, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Keppel O&M, said, “It was slightly more than two months ago when we delivered the second rig, West Prospero, to Seadrill on budget and ahead of schedule. I am pleased that we have replicated that achievement.
“More importantly, West Atlas achieved a sterling safety record with more than 2.5 million manhours of work without any lost-time incidents since day one.”
West Atlas is the third KFELS B Class rig that Keppel FELS has delivered to Seadrill. The first rig, West Ceres (ex-Seadrill 3), was delivered to Seadrill in April 2006 and the second, West Prospero, was delivered in June 2007. All three were delivered earlier than scheduled without compromise on budget and quality.
Mr Ian Shearer, Senior Vice President Jackup Division of Seadrill, said, “Seadrill has now invested more than US$1 billion in projects with Keppel FELS.
“Keppel FELS not only builds these complicated drilling machines with such impressive standards of quality, they also do it in unsurpassable times that we could almost be certain about taking delivery on, or in our experience, ahead of schedule.”
Keppel FELS is building one more KFELS B Class jackup rig and a semisubmersible drilling tender rig for Seadrill. They are progressing according to schedule and are scheduled for delivery between mid-2008 and end-2009 respectively.
Commenting on the partnership between Keppel and Seadrill, Mr Tong added, “Through the past 14 years, both companies have strengthened the win-win partnership and deepened the invaluable amity. I believe that our relationship with Seadrill will further strengthen as we continue to be Seadrill’s partner in its fleet expansion.”
West Atlas has already won a 480-day charter agreement with Coogee Resources Limited offshore Western Australia.
Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Seadrill is an international offshore drilling contractor providing services within drilling and well services. The company has 37 drilling units, of which 15 are under construction. Its fleet includes harsh-environment semisubmersibles, jackups, shallow and deepwater tender rigs and deepwater drillships. Seadrill also provides platform drilling, well intervention and engineering services. The company has some 5,000 employees, operating in 14 countries on four continents.
Keppel FELS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, through Keppel O&M, a leader in offshore rigs, shiprepair and conversion and specialised shipbuilding. Keppel O&M’s near market, near customer strategy is bolstered by a global network of 20 yards in the Asia Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, the Caspian Sea, Middle East and the North Sea regions. Integrating the experience and expertise of its yards worldwide, the group aims to be the provider of choice and partner in solutions for the offshore and marine industry.
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