South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) has won a $550m order to build an oil drilling ship for an unnamed US firm.

The drillship will be developed using the company’s own technology and equipped with an ultra-deep sea water drilling system that will allow the vessel to drill up to a maximum depth of 12,000ft.

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In addition, the vessel is designed to load 3,200t of drilling pipes and casings, which is bigger than the former drillship design that was able to load 2,200t.

The vessel will be a dual derrick type, which helps it to drill for oil and assemble pipes simultaneously, and also reduces the working time for drilling by 25% when compared with a single derrick type.

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