OREANDA-NEWS. December 09, 2011. China Oilfield Services Limited announced its wholly-owned subsidiary COSL Drilling Europe AS (“CDE”) signed a contract on 1 December 2011 to commission Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard Co. Ltd. (“CIMC Raffles”)to construct of a new deep-water semi-submersible platform COSLProspector. This new GG5000-type platform is designed by Norway-based Grenland Group AS with a maximum operation depth of 1,500 meters, and scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2014, reported the press-centre of COSL.

COSLProspector has an overall length of 104.5 meters, an overall width of 70.5 meters and an overall depth of 37.55 meters. It has a design draught of 9.75 - 17.5 meters and is designed to operate at water depths of 70 – 1,500 meters. It has a racking capacity of 7,600 meters and a variable load capacity of 5,000 metric tons. It can support accommodation for up to 130 cabin crews. Like the three other semi-submersible platforms including COSLPioneer, COSLInnovator and COSLPromoter, COSLProspector is equipped with DP3 dynamic positioning and anchor mooring positioning systems and an unmanned cabin design. The blowout preventer installed to the platform can operate under pressure of up to 15,000 psi. The platform is also equipped with gas well christmas tree transmission and hang-off drilling riser devices, allowing underwater installation of gas well christmas trees alongside with drilling operations.

COSLProspector can be deployed not only in the Norwegian North Sea, but also the low-temperature regions as well as other waters around the world. It has met the requirements of Norwegian Petroleum Safety Administration(PSA), Norwegian Maritime Directorate (NMD), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the NORSOK petroleum industry safety standards and relevant traditional requirements for semi-submersible platforms.

Mr. Li Yong, COSL’s CEO and President said: “The construction of COSLProspector is an enhancement to COSL’s fleet of deep-water drilling equipment. We believe that by leveraging the experience of building the previous three deep-water semi-submersible platforms, CIMC Raffles is capable of delivering high quality construction of COSLProspector in a timely manner. We expect COSLProspector to bring valuable return to COSL and its shareholders soon.”