CIMC making progress with 'North Dragon' construction
On 19th January 2015, North Dragon, the North Sea semi-submersible drilling rig being built by CIMC Raffles for North Sea Rigs AS was successfully assembled in Yantai Shipyard. It is the first semi-submersible drilling rig capable of operating in Arctic areas that is being fully constructed in a Chinese shipyard. The North Dragon is designed to operate in water depths of 500 meters, up to 1,200 meters and will be able to drill to depths of 8,000 meters. It is equipped with Rolls & Royce power system, Kongsberg DP3 dynamic positioning system, Siemens electronic control system and NOV drilling system. Drilling section applies offline stand building system, which can connect three Drill-pipes or risers together at the same time of Drilling works going on, and adopts Horizontal automatic Hydraracker design, promoting the drilling efficiency 15%. The rig is being built based on the GM4-D design. CIMC Raffles has completed the basic design together with Global Maritime, with 80% Intellectual Property Rights.