(EnergyAsia, December 6 2010, Monday) — Yantai CIMC Raffles, an offshore and marine fabricator in China’s Shandong province, recently delivered the country’s first deep-water semi-submersible drilling platform, the COSLPIONEER, to integrated oilfield services provider China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL).

An advanced deepwater semi-submersible drilling platform, the COSLPIONEER is equipped with DP3 dynamic positioning and anchor mooring positioning systems as well as an unmanned cabin design to be remotely controlled from the navigation and operating rooms. It was designed and built in compliance with the demanding standards of operating in Norway’s tough offshore environment.

With a crew capacity of 120, the platform also meets the requirements of Norwegian Petroleum Safety Administration (PSA), Norwegian Maritime Directorate (NMD), DNV, the NORSOK petroleum industry safety standards, as well as other relevant traditional requirements for semi-submersible platforms.

COSLPIONEER measures 104.5 m long, 65 m wide and 36.85 m deep. It has a design draught of 9.5 m to 17.75 m, is capable of operating in water depth of 70-750 m, and has a maximum design wind speed of 51.5 m per second. It has a maximum vertical drilling depth of 7,500 m and a maximum variable deck load of 4,000 tons.

Liu Jian, COSL’s chairman, said: “The delivery of COSLPIONEER for operation represents an important milestone in upgrading COSL’s deep-water operation capabilities.”

Thomas Lo, DNV site manager at Yantai CIMC Raffles, said: “This project is like a journey for everyone involved. It transforms the yard from infancy to maturity in order to achieve the quality level of a complex offshore project. Meanwhile, with the added complexity, the yard manages to maintain a matching safety record.

“We have seen that the yard has developed innovative technology on the way. For example, the 20,000 ton overhead crane used for mating of the upper and lower hull is the world’s number one.

“With the continuous investment of the CIMIC Group, we will see even more rapid development at the yard to cater for the high-end offshore market. I wish the yard all the best and I feel that this yard has a great potential to be amongst the very best in China.”