The Bob Douglas will be a giant, a drillship big enough to carry two helicopters, cope with 10,000 feet of water and still manage to pierce the earth’s crust another 30,000 feet.
It is under construction at Ulsan, Hyundai Heavy Industries’ shipyard on the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula. When it goes to work later this year, its owner, Noble Corporation, will charge $618,000 a day for its use – more than twice what it costs to hire an Airbus A320 for a month.
The new vessel is far more advanced and better-equipped than its predecessors, the result of heavy investment – it can cost upwards of $600m to bring a state-of-the-art drillship to market. But just 10 years ago the best-equipped offshore rigs would have cost one-third what Noble is charging.