Drydocks World’s Dubai facility

DRYDOCKS World has completed a major refurbishment on National Drilling Company (NDC)’s offshore drilling rig Al Ghallan, the shipyard announced.

The project is part of a series of four rig repair and refurbishment projects signed with NDC last year. Earlier, Drydocks World completed several projects for NDC.

Rig Al Ghallan is described as a self-elevating cantilever-type mobile offshore drilling unit with three triangular lattice-type legs, which are 234 ft long.

Major refurbishment was carried out in the accommodation section. The rig’s three cranes were dismantled and overhauled. High-pressure Koomey lines were replaced. Pipes around the rig were revamped. An engineering study was carried out based on which the ventilation in the sewage treatment plant and transformer room were improved. Cantilever skidding gears, air hoists, air tuggers, the raw water tower elevation system, gears and bearings and dump and equalising valves were overhauled. Other work included MPI inspection of legs, painting of the derrick and blasting and painting of hull, tanks and mud pits.

Drydocks World stressed in a statement that it has a well-established reputation in the rig repair, refit and refurbishment segment. The company says it has successfully dry-docked, repaired and refurbished 125 offshore platform vessels (OPV) belonging to major companies. “The shipyard has extensive experience on drilling rigs and jack-up drilling units. There are instances where a basic hull structure was transformed into a complete OPV with newly fabricated bracing legs, columns, spud cans, accommodation structures and jack-up and drilling systems,” the statement added.

Drydocks World also said it has now developed its capabilities to build highly sophisticated drilling rigs.

 

CAPABILITY

Commenting on NDC projects, Khamis Juma Buamim, chairman of Drydocks World & Maritime World, expressed gratitude to NDC for its continued faith in the yard’s services. “We have the capability to meet all the requirements of NDC and plan to develop the rig business further by joining hands with major suppliers and certified subcontractors. As a regional service provider we are delighted to work with prominent companies in the region and make effective contributions to the growth of the offshore oil and gas sector,” he said.

The official highlighted that the repair facility has three large graving docks and well-equipped workshops that provide it the flexibility of addressing assignments that are of a highly challenging nature. 

 

NDC ROLE ENHANCED

Abdalla Saeed Al Suwaidi, chief executive officer of NDC, underlined the importance of modernising the company’s rigs.

“These major refurbishment projects performed in parallel with the fleet expansion plans to obtain new and advanced offshore and onshore rigs are contributing considerably in strengthening NDC’s operational excellence and sustaining maximum levels of safety, environment protection and effective performance. This will certainly enable NDC to serve its clients competently, always meet their operational requirements and achieve their satisfaction,” he commented.