Lamprell delivers 26th jack-up in tough market conditions

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) offshore rig construction and refurbishment specialist has now completed and delivered the Al Hudairiyat jack-up which incorporates the latest drilling system technology and will leave the company’s Hamriyah shipyard for deployment offshore Abu Dhabi between now and the end of March. All nine rigs in the series are built to the Cameron LeTourneau Super 116E (Enhanced) design, with the final unit due for delivery before the end of June.
Christopher McDonald, Lamprell CEO, expressed pleasure at the on-time delivery of the jack-up, the 26th newbuilding completed since the company listed in 2006. Noting that the Abu Dhabi National Drilling Company is Lamprell’s biggest single client, he said: “We have been able to prove once again our ability to complete a major project to the necessary high standards and we are proud to construct this latest project in the UAE for use in the UAE where we have strong ties.”
Meanwhile, the drilling firm’s chief executive officer, Abdalla Saeed Al Suwaidi, commended the high build quality which, he said, demonstrated a world standard capability. His company’s partnership with Lamprell to manufacture offshore jack-up rigs in the UAE had made the country the first and only country in the region capable of building such critically engineered, high-tech oil and gas rigs,” he said.
Despite some major restructuring in the face of the offshore downturn, the rig construction company revealed in January that difficult market conditions would have an impact on its 2017 revenue stream. A trading update indicated that 2016 revenue would be around USD 700 million but this year’s figure could be “towards the lower half” of the USD 400-500 million range.