Al-Sulaiti (left) and al-Othman exchange the contract documents as HE al-Sada and al-Kaabi look on.

Gulf Drilling International (GDI) has awarded two contracts worth $110mn to Nakilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KOM), a joint venture shipyard between Nakilat and Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M).

The first contract is for the construction of a self-propelled and self-elevating liftboat, which is customised for field transit operations in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in water depths of up to 65mts.

When completed at the end of 2015, the liftboat will provide accommodation and platform support services for a customer with operations in Qatar.

N-KOM has also been awarded a six-year repair and maintenance contract for GDI’s existing fleet of jack-up rigs operating in the Middle East.

The contracts were signed in the presence of HE the Minister of Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada. Also in attendance was Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, director (Oil & Gas Ventures) at Qatar Petroleum.

The contracts were signed by Ibrahim J al-Othman, GDI chief executive officer and Abdullah Fadhalah al-Sulaiti, N-KOM chairman.

Al-Sada said, “Today marks an important milestone in the development of Qatar’s offshore industry with placing the order for the first built-in-Qatar liftboat. It also highlights the impressive growth of our offshore industry and of the Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard.”

The minister expressed confidence that the collaboration between GDI and N-KOM, will help ensure the continued success of Qatar’s Energy and Industry sectors for many years to come.”

Al-Sulaiti said, “N-KOM has delivered a significant number of repairs for GDI’s offshore drilling fleet over the past three years and we have come to intimately understand their requirements. Having already established ourselves in the ship repair market, our next step is to capture the robust regional offshore market by leveraging on Nakilat and Keppel O&M’s expertise to provide quality and value-added offshore solutions. In this regard, we are committed to delivering a high-quality liftboat to GDI to support their offshore fleet.”

Al-Othman said, “GDI is pleased to sign this contract with N-KOM for the construction of their first liftboat. It will add to our growing fleet of quality rigs, which N-KOM will also be maintaining for us. We look forward to receiving a “best in class” liftboat on the scheduled delivery date.”

This will be the fourth vessel in GDI’s fleet that is dedicated to providing accommodation and platform support services, which are complementary to GDI’s core business of drilling.

The other diversified vessels in GDI’s fleet include the liftboat “Rumailah”, the accommodation jack-up “Zikreet” and another liftboat that GDI is managing through a ‘charter party’.

GDI is a subsidiary of Gulf International Services (GIS) and the largest oilfield service company in Qatar.