STX grabs precious drillship order

Seoul: South Korea's STX Offshore & Shipbuilding willbuild a second $550 million Huisman-designed Globetrotter class drillship for Noble Drilling.
The Noble Globetrotter II drillship is the second unit to be built for Switzerland-based Noble using a two phase process. The hull will be built by STX at their yard in Dalian, China, and will then be delivered to the Netherlands where Huisman will oversee the installation and commissioning of the topside equipment.
The newbuilding will measure 189m long and 32m wide and will use Huisman's multi-purpose tower design, capable of conducting both drilling and pipe assembly operations contemporaneously. The drillship will be capable of drilling to a vertical depth of 40,000 feet and will feature DP-3 station-keeping ability, 18,000 tonnes of variable deck load, and accommodation for 180 people. [11/08/10]