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.

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.