Geotechnical marine drill

We design, build and commission geotechnical marine drilling rigs as a system, not a stack of bought parts, the derrick and drill base, the hoisting and heave compensation, the drill string, fluids and spoil handling and the controls, all engineered together under single-party accountability. The system is offered as a range graded by line pullback – 30, 50, 100 and 150 tonnes, so the rig is matched to the water depth, the borehole and the vessel rather than over- or under-specified.

Configured to the campaign

• Pullback to suit – 30 t and 50 t classes for lighter and mid duties; 100 t and 150 t classes for deep water and heavy strings. See the drill range.
• Single or twin derrick – the smaller classes can be a single derrick mast or a twin “goal-post” derrick; the larger classes are twin-derrick ram rigs.
• Drawworks or ram – smaller classes can be supplied as a wireline drawworks rig (a roosterbox raised and lowered by winch) or a hydraulic-cylinder ram rig; the large systems are always pure ram rigs.
• Heave-compensated – passive heave compensation as standard, with our Active Heave Assist available to add controlled weight-on-bit and remove residual error.

The twin derrick as a heavy-lift deployment tower

The twin “goal-post” derrick straddles the moonpool, so the drilling tower doubles as a heavy-lift launch-and-recovery system through the moon pool. The same compensated heavy-lift arrangement that lowers a seabed frame (SBF) to depth also deploys a seabed drilling system and a subsea CPT unit, soft-landed on the seabed, under passive heave compensation, on two falls of wire.

What ties it together is our heavy-lift interface system: a common lifting interface and pallet change-out that let the rig switch between its three deployment modes – subsea drill, SBF (seabed-frame) topside drilling, and subsea CPT – without re-reeving any wires. One tower, one heavy-lift system, three modes, changed over on location. It’s a genuine operational advantage: less downtime, fewer wire handling operations and a single accountable deployment system instead of separate spreads.

Where it’s heading

This range is the proven, driller-operated platform. Full automation is the direction of travel, we are moving towards automatic drilling with AWOB and Active Heave Assist, iron-roughneck and remote pipe handling and a path-to-automation control system. Our automated geotechnical marine drill is the fully-automated expression of the same engineering.