Page 38: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Nov/Dec 2023)

37 39

FEATURE GREEN DRILLING RIGS per well, and this is proven by comparing the green rig for nuclear power. So I think this will be coming back for the future with the current state-of-the-art rigs. So, we've sure,” Wijning says.

done a complete drilling well on paper and we saw that we could reduce the time per well with about 18% to 20%. CHICKEN & EGG

That's already part of that gain. “When will the Huisman Green Rig design become

Wijning explains in more detail: ”We have a zero en- an actual, tangible rig? What do the drillers say?,” we ergy active heave compensation system on it. We have a asked Wijning.

lower wind area, fewer people leadingto less hotel loads, He says: “Well, everybody is very enthusiastic about the and therefore, the energy consumption per day is less. So design and its capabilities. However, we are dealing with that combined with the less days when we are running on the chicken and the egg situation here. Contractors focus diesel, the rig emits around 40% to 45% less than its com- on their own feets and will only consider new builds when petition. But when running on external power (Hydro, a suffcient long-term contract is basically handed out by

Wind .OE) we can reduce the emissions up to 85% to an operator. 90%. So it depends on the case, when we can receive ex- “Operators on the other hand, will be very happy to ternal power, then we can go up to the 86%. contract a rig when she's available. But yeah, she will only

What is more, Huisman has been thinking about nucle- be available when a contractor will build it. So that's the ar powered rigs, but, Wijning says, we feel that's a little bit chicken and the egg situation. But we do see defnitely that too early, so we haven't included that one yet. in certain areas the drilling market is tightening, and we

Still, when asked when he could see nuclear powered see some new build (orders) appearing on the horizon.” rigs becoming feasible, he said 10 years from now could To back up this claim of newbuilds on the horizon Wi- be possible. jning says: ”We see that the ambitions for emission reduc- “I know that here in the Netherlands we are investigat- tion are rising signifcantly. For example, an operator wants ing nuclear power for vessels and of course it's not new. to reduce the emissions of their contracted feet by 50% by

I mean, the naval has done it for years and years, and 2030, and 2030 is approaching very fast.” in the past, also commercial vessels have been deploying And, according to Wijning, without bold actions, it is 38 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM