PetroVietnam launches 1st Vietnam-made oilrig

The first made-in-Vietnam oilrig in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province

A jack-up rig is a type of mobile platform that is able to stand still on the sea floor, resting on a number of supporting legs.

PetroVietnam member PV Shipyard had been building the platform for 26 months in the southern province and completed it late August.

The 90-meter jack-up rig weighs almost 12,000 tons when fully finished, including 9,685 tons of structural materials, 950 tons of piping system and 1,748 tons of electrical, electronic devices.

The platform, with the supporting legs being 145 meters long, can drill to a depth of 6 kilometers. It includes a helicopter deck.

Addressing the launch ceremony, Vietnamese President Sang said the completion of the oilrig marked a new period in the country’s oil and gas sector. He said PetroVietnam needed to continue to make further efforts in the national petrochemistry group’s oil and gas exploration.

PetroVietnam describes the platform as one of its works to mark the 50th anniversary of the country’s oil and gas industry – November 27.

On September 5, the first locally-made oilrig was loaded by a hydraulic jack system to a barge and tugged out to the sea, 4 km off the shore, for a test. The jack-up then was towed back to the fabrication yard for some final work before handed over to PetroVietnam, the owner of the project, in May 2012.

Building rigs at home is part of Vietnam policy on shifting core mechanical engineering in oil and gas to Vietnamese companies. The country had earlier to import oilrigs.

As part of Saturday’s oilrig launching ceremony, PV Shipyard of PetroVietnam signed a contract with Vietsovpetro to build a 90-meter jack-up rig for the Vietnamese-Russian joint venture. It will be the second made-in-Vietnam platform.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, during his working trip to Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province in July, came to visit PV Shipyard and examined the building of the first locally made rig.

Also during the Saturday afternoon ceremony, where Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang joined, PetroVietnam member Petroleum Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) delivered to Vietsovpetro an oil tanker that is the biggest ever built in the country.

The PTSC Bach Ho tanker, built by PTSC, can contain up to 150,000 tons of crude oil.