New hope for Chinese shipyards! A shipbuilding giant wins contract to refit two cylindrical drilling ships

With the rapid growth of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, the "Hope" series of cylindrical semi-submersible drilling platforms, the world's first built by a Chinese shipyard, is ushering in a new "hope."

On October 20, Sembcorp Marine, a Singaporean offshore giant, announced that it had won two floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) conversion projects. Sembcorp Marine stated that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sembcorp Marine Rigs & Floaters, has signed a master service agreement with New Fortress Energy (NFE) of the United States to convert two Sevan cylindrical drilling vessels into FLNG liquefaction facilities, including the fabrication and integration of LNG topside modules.

According to the contract, the hull conversion and topside fabrication of the first FLNG liquefaction facility are scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2024, and the work on the second FLNG project is expected to be contracted to Sembcorp Marine later through further work order agreements.

These two FLNGs will house NFE's designed Fast LNG liquefaction production facilities, with a capacity of approximately 1.4 million tons per year. The LNG cargo produced by the FLNG will be stored on nearby moored LNG carriers. While NFE currently has Fast LNG liquefaction facilities on self-elevating drilling platforms under construction in the United States, this marks the first time that two Sevan cylindrical hulls have been repurposed as FLNG liquefaction facilities.

According to International Ship Network, a total of four Sevan cylindrical semi-submersible drilling platforms have been built, namely the "Hope Series" semi-submersible drilling platforms of COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (formerly COSCO Shipyard Engineering), including the "Sevan Driller (Hope 1)" (built by Nantong COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, delivered in 2009), "Sevan Brasil (Hope 2)" (built by Qidong COSCO Shipping Offshore, delivered in 2012), "Sevan Louisiana (Hope 3)" (built by Qidong COSCO Shipping Offshore, delivered in 2013), and the "Sevan Developer (Hope 4)" (built by Qidong COSCO Shipping Offshore), which has been idle at the shipyard and not yet delivered.

The "Hope Series" semi-submersible drilling platforms have a hull diameter of 75 meters, a maximum operating water depth of 3000 meters, a maximum drilling depth of 10000 meters, and are equipped with a DP3 dynamic positioning system. They utilize battery technology to improve fuel efficiency and can operate in harsh environments. In 2012, the design and construction technology of the world's first cylindrical drilling and storage platform, "Hope 1," built by COSCO Shipyard, won the first national science and technology progress award in China's offshore engineering construction field.

Of these, the first three delivered are owned by the Norwegian company Sevan Drilling/Seadrill. In its second-quarter report released in August this year, Seadrill stated that it had sold the "Sevan Driller" and "Sevan Brasil" to NFE. It is expected that these two drilling vessels will be used for the conversion.

"Sevan Brasil"

Industry insiders analyzed that although all four drilling vessels were built by COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, NFE chose Sembcorp Marine for the FLNG conversion mainly because the cylindrical hull design is a patented technology of Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary Sevan SSP. Sevan Marine, the predecessor of Sevan SSP, launched the cylindrical FLNG concept as early as 2014 and obtained approval from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

William Gu, head of Sembcorp Marine Rigs & Floaters, said: "We are delighted and honored to partner with NFE to realize their Fast FLNG program through these two FLNG conversion projects utilizing Sembcorp's proprietary Sevan cylindrical hull design. These projects mark Sembcorp Marine's successful entry into the FLNG market, enabling our clients to rapidly deploy FLNG facilities to meet the growing demand for LNG liquefaction terminals and leverage Sembcorp Marine's full suite of floating and nearshore LNG solutions to meet the burgeoning LNG market demand."
  
Wong Weng Sun, President and CEO of Sembcorp Marine, said: "This FLNG project is a landmark achievement, marking our expanded capabilities to provide customized solutions for clients across the entire energy value chain. Over the years, Sembcorp Marine has elevated its EPC capabilities into the solutions space through investments in technology companies such as Sevan SSP. Our continued research efforts have also enabled Sembcorp Marine to successfully develop and commercialize our proprietary designs and solutions, such as this FLNG conversion project and the wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) order earlier this year. The Sevan SSP cylindrical hull design also offers excellent solutions for the electrification of offshore oil and gas production facilities, floating substations and conversion platforms for offshore wind power, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) applications."