Maersk Drilling revealed Tuesday that the firm has taken delivery of its first ultra harsh environment jackup, Maersk Intrepid (482' ILC), from the Keppel FELS shipyard in Singapore on time. Maersk Intrepid will start its mobilization to the Norwegian North Sea in approximately two weeks, where it will commence a four year contract with Total E&P Norge AS.

Maersk Intrepid is the first in a series of four newbuild ultra harsh environment jackups to enter Maersk Drilling’s rig fleet in 2014-16. The four jackups represent a total investment of $2.6 billion. The first three jackups, including Maersk Intrepid, will be delivered from the Keppel FELS shipyard in 2014-2015, and the fourth will be delivered from the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea in 2016.

The Maersk Intrepid will be drilling the demanding and complex wells on the Martin Linge field development in the Norwegian North Sea. The contract includes four one-year options. The estimated contract value for the firm contract is $550 million.

With a leg length of 678 feet (206.8 meters) the rigs are the world’s largest jackups and are designed for year round operation in the North Sea, in water depths up to 492 feet (150 meters). Uptime and drilling efficiency are maximized through dual pipe handling. While one string is working in the well bore, a second string of e.g. casing, drill pipe or bottom hole assembly can be assembled/disassembled and stored in the set-back area, ready for subsequent transfer for use in the well bore thus reducing the non-productive time. The drill floor features Multi Machine Control - a fully remote operated pipe handling system allowing all standard operations such as stand building and tripping to be conducted without personnel on the drill floor thus ensuring a high level of consistency across crews and an improved efficiency.