OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 July 2008 was announced, that Uralmash – burovoe oborudovanie (UrBo) - subsidiary of Integra Group –conducted a test assembly and presentation of the third heavy drilling rig 4200\250 EK-BM (Ch) for the needs of Gazprom. The drilling rig was named “Ekaterina” after Ekatrerinburg where the first, similar heavy drilling rig was commissioned. All three rigs were produced under the contract with  Gazkomplektimpex envisaging delivery of 11 rigs in total.

Today’s  test assembly of  the third drilling rig was completed at the new production site of the Tyumen shipbuilding plant (Tyumen branch of UrBo), which was opened this May specifically to for the delivery of the Gazprom order. Test assembly service reduces  the drilling rig installation time at the field. In addition the use of the Tyumen site, which is located closer to the Customer’s fields, should reduce the overall transportation time.

Commenting on the execution of the contract with Gazprom, Vitaliy Tkachev, Integra’s Executive Vice President for Equipment Manufacturing and President of Uralmash-VNIIBT, said:

“The delivery to the Customer of the third heavy drilling rig demonstrates that Uralmash – burovoe oborudovanie is carrying out its contractual obligations ahead of schedule for the project of state importance – the development of hydrocarbons in the Yamal peninsula.

“The new test assembly site in Tyumen was built under UrBo’s expansion program and is used in addition to the existing platform in Ekaterinburg. This should allow our manufacturing companies to raise the quality of services provided and provide more flexibility.

“In the future, the Tyumen site will be expanded so that two heavy drilling rigs can be assembled on it  simultaneously,  this will allow us to reach our mid-term target of commissioning around 25 heavy cluster drilling rigs in a year."