''Abdülhamid Han'' (ex ''Cobalt Explorer'') is a

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

- flagged seventh-generation ultra deepwater

drillship A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped ...

owned and operated by the

Turkish Petroleum Corporation TPAO or Turkish Petroleum Corporation has been established in order to perform hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production, refinery and marketing activities on behalf of the Turkish Republic with the law 6327 in 1954. Many milestones in Turki ...

. She is Turkey's fourth drillship.

History

The US oil and gas company Vantage Drilling International ordered the construction of the drillship in 2013, and prepaid US$59.5 million. She was built in 2014 by

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Hanwha Ocean Co., Ltd. (), formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME; ), is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung. History On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk ...

(DSME) at its shipyard in

Okpo, Geoje Okpo is a neighborhood in the city of Geoje in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. The village is located on the eastern coast of Geoje Island and a center of the island. The Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard is located ...

, South Korea, and christened ''Cobalt Explorer''. In August 2015, the construction deal was terminated by DSME due to contract breach by Vantage Drilling. The ship was worth about US$600 million at that time. In May 2019, the Norwegian company Northern Drilling had an option to acquire ''Cobalt Explorer''. The price of the ship had fallen to about US$350 million. She was renamed ''West Cobalt''. However, the deal was cancelled in October the same year by the offshore driller due to fundamental breach of contract. The state-owned oil and gas company, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, TPAO, purchased the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

-flagged idle drillship in November 2021 to add her to its drillship fleet of three sixth-generation drillships. The vessel departed from Okpo Port, South Korea early March 2022, sailed to Turkey and arrived at the Port of

Taşucu Taşucu is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Silifke, Mersin Province, Turkey. Its population is 15,184 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''belde''). It had obtained the status of ''belde'' after the local el ...

in Silifke, Mersin mid May the same year. She was painted red/white with a big crescent and star of the

Turkish flag The national flag of Turkey, officially the Turkish flag (), is a red flag featuring a white crescent and star on its emblem, based on the 18th-century Ottoman Empire flag. The flag is often called "the red flag" (), and is referred to as "the ...

on her

prow The bow () is the forward part of the hull (watercraft), hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the f ...

. Work on equipment installation, technical procedures and certification was carried out before her planned commissioning in early August 2022.

Name

The drillship is renamed in honor of

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

(), the 34th

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Em ...

, like the three other drillships of the TPAO, ''

Fatih Fatih () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 15 km2, and its population is 368,227 (2022). It is home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the mayor's office, police headquarters, metro ...

'' (

Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

, known as ''Fatih'', the "conqueror"), '' Yavuz'' (

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

, known as ''yavuz'', the "resolute") and '' Kanuni'' (

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...

, known as ''Kanunî'', the "lawgiver").

Characteristics

''Abdülhamid Han'' is a seventh-generation, advanced technology drillship (one of five in the world). The ship can operate in rough sea conditions and drill into high-pressure gas reservoirs. It is long, has a beam of and a draft of . She has at in summer. It can drill to a total depth of in a maximum water depth of , which is further than the

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deep sea, deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maxi ...

, the deepest place on earth. The vessel's

drawworks A drawworks is the primary hoisting machinery component of a rotary drilling rig. Its main function is to provide a means of raising and lowering the traveling block. The wire-rope drill line winds on the drawworks drum and over the crown b ...

of type AKMH Wirth GH 9000 EG is powered by a motor featuring a hookload capacity of at the high tower. The ship has a crew of 200. The ship's identification number is,

MMSI Number A Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) is effectively a maritime object's international ''maritime telephone number'', a temporarily assigned UID issued by that object's current flag state (unlike an IMO number, which is a permanent global UID ...

271050408 and the call sign is TCA7090.

Mission

On 9 August 2022, the drillship was deployed from the Port of Taşucu to her first mission towards the "Yörükler-1" Well off

Gazipaşa Gazipaşa () is a municipality and district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,111 km2, and its population is 53,702 (2022). It is situated on the Mediterranean coast, 180 km east of the city of Antalya. Gazipaşa is a quiet ru ...

Antalya Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

to explore

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...

reserves in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdulhamid Han Drillships 2014 ships Ships built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Ships built in Geoje Ships of Turkey Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (Turkey)

History

Name

Characteristics

Mission

See also

References