MESCO Awarded Three Contracts To Build Offshore Equipment

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Company, Ltd. (MESCO) was recently awarded orders for a semisubmersible type and a jackup type offshore oil drilling rig, as well as a semisubmersible offshore accommodation platform.

The order for the semisubmersible oil drilling rig was received, with the assistance of Mitsui & Company, Ltd., from Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. of Brazil. This is a modified version, with MESCOdesigned improvements, of the Aker H-3 type semisubmersible rigs Borgila Dolphin and Dan Queen, built in 1967 and 1977 respectively, under a technical license from Aker of Norway. It is the seventh semisubmersible offshore structure to be built by Mitsui.

The jackup type rig, Trident 8, was ordered jointly from MESCO, Mitsui Ocean Development and Engineering Co., Ltd. (MODEC), and Toyo Menka Kaisha, Ltd. by Triton Industry of Panama, an a f f i l i a t e of Forex Neptune of France. It is basically similar in design to the jackup type rig Trident 6 ordered early this year by the same owner, and modified for shallow-water use.

The semisubmersible offshore accommodation platform, to be constructed for Einar Rasmussen of Norway, will be of the pacesetter type developed by Friede and Goldman, Ltd. to serve as a floating hotel for people engaged in offshore work for a long period.

Equipped with 100-ton and 40-ton cranes, it will also have offshore servicing functions.

This is the first order in the world for this kind of platform since the accident of a similar offshore accommodation platform in the North Sea last March. Taking into account the lessons learned from the disaster, it is of highgrade design and specifications in anticipation of more stringent M A R I N E DIVISION rules likely to be prescribed by ship classification societies. Also taken into consideration is the fact that it will be used mostly in the North Sea and is to be used by a Scandinavian owner. The platform will accommodate about 600 people.

The drilling rigs will be classed by the American Bureau of Shipping, the accommodation platform by Det norske Veritas.

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