COSCO Dalian Shipyard Co. Ltd. (Dalian, Liaoning Province) started yesterday, under a contract with Germany's Deutsche Verkehrs-Bank (DVB), construction of the Dalian Pioneer, the world's largest deep-water oil drilling vessel, Xinhua reports.
"The vessel will cost more than $500 million and will be the first deep-water drilling vessel built by China," Xinhua quoted Wang Xingru, General Manager of COSCO Dalian as saying. Mr. Xingru said the construction was scheduled to be completed in Q3, 2012.
The 200m-long, 50m-wide tanker is designed to carry up to one million barrels of crude oil. The vessel will drill oil wells in international oilfields with a high level of efficiency and safety. The vessel will be operating in waters of up to 10,000 feet in depth and can drill to depths of over 30,000 feet.