Seatrium Offshore Technology, the flagship offshore jack-up designer for Seatrium Group, has won an international tender from International Maritime Industries (IMI), the largest shipyard in the MENA region, for the supply of equipment and license for a LeTourneau Super 116E Class Self-Elevating Drilling Unit (SE-MODU), Kingdom 3. This milestone marks the historic beginning of new-build construction in IMI since the yard’s opening and underscores the start of an ambitious long-term partnership with IMI to construct offshore jack-ups in the Kingdom.
As previously reported, earlier this month, IMI Shipyard has received an order from ARO Drilling for the construction of the Kingdom 3, the first jack-up drilling rig in Saudi Arabia.
IMI Shipyard is located in Ras Al-Khair, covering an area of 12 million square meters, equipped with three large docks, four Goliath cranes and seven wharves and other facilities, is the largest shipyard in the Middle East and North Africa. “Kingdom 3” is IMI Shipyard’s first newbuilding project since it was commissioned, and is a major step towards full operation of the shipyard.
In 2017, HD Hyundai Group’s shipbuilding subsidiary HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Saudi Aramco, Bahri, and UAE-based Lamprell announced the establishment of a joint venture, IMI Shipyard, with shareholdings of 20%, 40%, 20%, and 20%, respectively. IMI Shipyard was originally planned to commence production by the end of 2020 and achieve full-scale operations by 2022. However, due to factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, full production has been delayed and has yet to be realized.
Seatrium provides clients the flexibility of building vessels in its yards or drawing from its suite of jack-up designs to provide rig kits to others to fulfill local content requirements. The chosendesign will be the LeTourneau Super 116E Class and is part of the next generation of jack-up designs customized for operational requirements within the MENA region. These rigs will be outfitted with 343 feet of leg and 1.5 million-pound hook load while utilizing advanced cyber systems. This marks the 44th order for the LeTourneau Super 116 series of jack-ups.
Seatrium designed and built the world’s first independent leg jack-up drilling rig in 1955 and is an acknowledged leader in the supply of offshore jack-up drilling rigs today. Seatrium has designed and been involved in the construction of more than half of all jack-up rigs in service and 65% of the jack-ups operating in the Middle East. These orders underscore the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision for advanced technology, sustainability, and independence in offshore drilling.