Gulf Drilling International (GDI), a subsidiary of Gulf International Services (GIS), the largest oilfield service company in Qatar, has awarded two contracts worth USD 110M to Nakilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KOM), a joint venture shipyard between Nakilat and Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M).
The first contract is for the construction of a self-propelled and self-elevating liftboat, which is customised for field transit operations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in water depths of up to 65m. When completed at the end of 2015, the liftboat will provide accommodation and platform support services for a customer with operations in Qatar. N-KOM has also been awarded a six-year repair and maintenance contract for GDI’s existing fleet of jack-up rigs operating in the Middle East. The contracts were signed in the presence of His Excellency Dr Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry.
This will be the fourth vessel in GDI’s fleet that is dedicated to providing accommodation and platform support services, which are complementary to GDI’s core business of drilling. The other diversified vessels in GDI’s fleet include the liftboat ‘Rumailah’, the accommodation jack-up ‘Zikreet’ and another liftboat that GDI is managing through a Charter Party.
