OREANDA-NEWS. July 31, 2012. Eurasia Drilling Company Limited ("EDC" or the "Company" - LSE: EDCL), the leading onshore and offshore drilling service provider in the CIS, today announces that its offshore jack up drilling rig, the SATURN, (previously TRIDENT 20) achieved the major milestone of working continuously for five years without a Lost time Incident (LTI) in June 2012.

The commitment to incident free operations by EDC’s offshore crews and onshore management combined with the full support of EDC’s contractors are the main contributory factors to reaching this goal.

Saturn is owned and managed by the Turkmenistan Branch of BKE Shelf Ltd  in Ashgabat and has worked almost entirely throughout this five year period in Turkmenistan for Petronas Carigali apart from a 6 month spell in 2010 when it worked for CMOC (Caspi Meruerty Operating Company B.V) in Kazakhstan.

SATURN is a Class CS MOD V (Keppel FELS B2427) class rig and was built in Baku in September 2000. The SATURN is capable of drilling in water depths of up to 107m, has a rated drilling depth capability of 8,000m and a BOP system rated to 15,000 psi.

EDC’s LTI rates historically have been below the industry average and for the first 6 months of 2012 EDC achieved a LTI rate of 0.17 compared to an International Association of Drilling Contractors’ (IADC) rate of 0.24 for the period Q1 2012.

Mr. Eddy Redd, Senior VP, Offshore Operations, commented,

“This milestone achievement is testament to our continued commitment to safe, reliable and efficient operations and to our focus on developing a workforce that is dedicated, motivated and well trained. I would like to thank all our staff, contractors and clients for their work and contribution to the safety culture which is core to our principals.”