China’s Cosco Corporation has won a contract valued at more than US $200m to build a semisubmersible tender assist drilling rig for Energy Drilling Ptd. Ltd.

The company confirmed that its subsidiary Cosco (Guangdong) Shipyard Co. Ltd., itself a subsidiary of the company’s 51% owned subsidiary Cosco Shipyard Group Co. Ltd., secured the contract with Energy Drilling to construct the unit, with an option for an additional unit.

The turnkey contract includes the supply of the DES (Derrick Equipment Set), with delivery set for June 2015.

The rig is a GustoMSC Ocean400 TD design equipped to work alongside specialised deepwater truss spars, tension leg platforms, and compliant towers outside of benign environments, but is also well suited to production drilling in shallow water due to its ability to drill and mobilise quickly in adverse weather conditions, said Cosco.

When completed, the rig will be one of the biggest and most modern semisub tender assist rigs in the market, with the largest variable deck load (VDL) of 4,000 tonnes and the highest air-gap of 10 m (33 ft). The DES is designed to drill on platforms of more than 37 m (120 ft) in height and is equipped with a quad-mast rated for 1,000,000 lbs hook-load.