Global Marine christens new deepwater drillship

Global Marine has launched its long-awaited ultra-deepwater drillship, the Glomar Jack Ryan. The state-of-the-art vessel, named for the company's late president and COO, is the second of two new drillships recently added to the Global Marine fleet—the other is the Glomar C.R. Luigs.

Capable of drilling a well 35,000 ft deep in water depths up to 12,000 ft, deeper than any other drillship, the Ryan is presently outfitted for 8,000 ft water depths in preparation for its first contract, a three-year stint in Trinidad for ExxonMobil. Built at a cost of some US$368 million at the Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with final commissioning of drilling equipment and other completion work at FirstWave/Newpark Shipbuilding in Galveston, Texas, the Hull 456 Class vessel has numerous unique features to maximize efficiency, minimize downtime, and improve operating conditions during severe weather.

Ship-shaped, the Ryan is 759 ft long, 118 ft wide, and 344 ft tall, and is the only large, ultra-deepwater drillship with a hull designed for rapid transit between locations and fuel efficiency while station-keeping. It has a variable deck load of 26,000 metric tons while drilling, a total of 44,000 sq ft of dedicated equipment storage space for operators' consumables, tubulars, and third-party equipment.

It is outfitted with both vertical and horizontal pipe racking systems—a Varco vertical racker and a Global Marine horizontal racker—to provide parallel and separate operating zones for safer, simpler, and more efficient operation as well as optimum pipe-layout for inspections or weather requirements. And it incorporates six retractable Kamewa Aquamaster 5.0 megawatt thrusters for a total of 40,500 hp, positioned one in the bow, two forward, one aft, and two in the stern.

The Ryan's drilling equipment is also state-of-the-art: an 180-ft, 2 million-pound hook-load derrick; a Varco TDS-4SH top drive with PH-85 pipe-handler, iron roughneck, casing roughneck, a National C-495 rotary table; and three National 14-P-220, 7,500 psi mud pumps. The BOP and well control equipment includes a Stewart & Stevenson shut-off diverter, two 18 ¾-inch, 15,000 psi double ram Cameron blow out preventers, two single 18 ¾-inch, 15,000 psi Cameron blowout preventers, and an 18 ¾-inch bore, 15,000 psi wellhead connector with two 18 ¾-inch, 10,000 psi Shaffer annulars. There are a flanged marine riser with a 3.5 million pound rating and ten 250 kip pounds single Shaffer riser tensioners.

The vessel is equipped with four Seatrax cranes, two with 140 ft booms and two with 120 ft booms, and has ten bulk tanks for mud and cement with a total of 16,500 cu ft. Power generation is provided by eight 5,790 hp MAN B&W diesel engines for a total output of 46,320 hp.

The Glomar Jack Ryan is expected to leave the Port of Galveston about October 20th and go on dayrates about November 1st.