Offshore Drilling Rigs and Companies around the world

Offshore drilling rigs are the lifeline of exploration and production operations in the water. Offshore drilling conditions are way more challenging and daunting than onshore ones. The earliest record of drilling operations in the water dates back to 1897, almost 4 decades after the first well was drilled in 1859. Today, over 900 large-scale O&G platforms around the world operate in arduous offshore conditions. Modern drilling rigs come equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and are touted as engineering wonders.

This article documents the leading offshore drilling companies and offshore drilling rigs around the world.

Leading Offshore Drilling Companies

As mentioned above, offshore drilling really is rocket science. It involves experts and professionals from almost all the disciplines of engineering and science. Offshore drilling is not only expensive but also involves a lot of safety risks. Exploration and production activities have become difficult in modern times. Uneven distribution of hydrocarbons has pushed oil companies to consistently drill in deeper waters, with technologies that are extremely complex and vulnerable to the slightest of errors. Drilling companies, more than often, encounter harsh offshore environments that present critical engineering hurdles to drilling equipment. Since the offshore rigs are situated far away from land, rescue and evacuation operations during emergency situations is more than a tough task. All the above-stated facts stress on employing the right drilling contractor, who not only has a fleet of modern, state-of-the-art drilling rigs but also holds expertise in deepsea drilling.

Having said that, let us look at some of the leading offshore drilling companies around the world:

• Transocean: Founded in 1954, Swiss-based Transocean is one of the largest offshore drilling contractors in the world.  A $4.9 billion company, Transocean delivers offshore contract drilling services to major oil and gas production companies around the world. Especially focused on deepwater and severe environment drilling services, the company’s operations include technically demanding regions of the offshore drilling. Transocean is presently under the leadership of Jeremy D. Thigpen and employs a workforce of over 9000 employees.
• EnscoRowan: UK-based EnscoRowan is probably the drilling contractor with the largest and most advanced rig fleet in the world. The firm was established in 2019 through a merger between leaders in the segment, Ensco and Rowan. EnscoRowan leverage years of experience and expertise to deliver high-quality drilling services across the most challenging drilling environments. London-headquartered EnscoRowan operates in almost all the major cities across the world, with activities spanning across six continents.
• Noble Corporation: British drilling company, Noble Corporation is next in line of contractors who offer leading offshore drilling services to the oil and gas industry. Established over nine decades ago, Noble Corporation has a dedicated fleet portfolio extends to 25 offshore drilling units, which includes 12 drillships and semisubmersibles and 13 jackups. Noble’s state-of-the-art drilling fleet comes equipped with the most advanced drilling technologies, enabling the operators to drill in some of the most challenging drilling environments around the world.
• Maersk Drilling: Danish drilling company, Maersk Drilling is a widely recognized drilling contractor with more than 4 decades of experience. Maersk Drilling provides the global oil and gas industry with highly efficient drilling services. Maersk’s extensive fleet of 23 drilling rigs enables safe and efficient drilling even in challenging offshore conditions. A highly proficient and committed workforce of 3,200 professional empowers Maersk to stay a leader in the field of drilling services.
• Saipem: Italy-based Saipem is a six-decade-old drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. Widely recognized for its innovative design, Saipem’s fleet consists of SAIPEM 10000, SCARABEO 8, PERRO NEGRO 8, SCARABEO 9, and various others. The firm holds vast expertise in operations that are carried out in harsh environments, remote areas and deepwater. Saipem delivers a whole range of services within contract constraints of EPC or EPCI basis. The firm operates in more than 60 countries, employing a force of over 32,000 people.

Propelling the Offshore Drilling Process: Offshore Drilling Rigs

In modern times, the trend of deploying heavy-duty offshore drilling rigs is on the rise. Continuing on the same lines, let us look at some of the largest offshore drilling rigs around the world:

• Berkut Oil Platform: First in line of the largest offshore oil rigs is the Berkut Oil Platform, deployed in the Okhotsk Sea in Russia. A gargantuan ice-resistant structure, Berkut has been labeled as the biggest drilling oil platform in the world. The Berkut platform is part of the Sakhalin-1 development in the Arkutun-Dagi reservoir, and is jointly held by Rosneft, Exxon Mobil, SODECO, and ONGC Videsh Ltd. Especially constructed for ultra-harsh sub-Arctic environmental conditions, the Berkut platform can operate in temperatures reaching as low as -280C, when the ice field surround the platform by almost two meters during winters. Berkut sits on a massive gravity base structure, which comes equipped with an earthquake protection system. The system allows Berkut to withstand seismic tremors of magnitude 9, without breaching operational protocols. With an overall weight of more than 200,000 ton, the Berkut Offshore Drilling Rig is considered to be the heaviest integrated topside floating on this planet.

• Hibernia: The Berkut Oil Platform is quickly followed by the Hibernia oil platform in terms of size. One of the most colossal platforms around the world, Hibernia is deployed in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, east of Newfoundland, Canada. The Hibernia offshore drilling rig is Hibernia is jointly owned by ExxonMobil, Chevron, Suncor, Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation, Murphy Oil, and Equinor. Hibernia is also the world’s first gravity base structure (GBS), featuring resistance to icebergs, and can withstand contact with a six million ton body of ice. Over 224m in height, Hibernia can process 220,000 barrels of oil a day, and possess 1.3 million barrels of crude oil in its 85m high caisson.

• Troll A Platform: Another big name in the offshore drilling rigs list is the Troll A platform. An offshore natural gas platform, Troll A is deployed in the Troll gas field, Norway. Labeled as one of the most complex engineering projects mankind ever endeavored, Troll A was launched in 1996. The Troll A platform stands 472 m tall and weighs over 1.2 million tons (with ballast). The tallest structure ever moved by Mankind, Troll A was designed and built by Norwegian contractors for Norske Shell, with the entire project accounting for $650 million.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Energy Dais.)