Deepwater Nautilus

Deepwater Nautilus is an ultra-deepwater, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig.

Built in 2000 in South Korea, she is owned by Transocean, registered in Vanuatu, and currently leased to Petronas at the rate of $140,000 per day for drilling operations in Malaysia.

Description
Deepwater Nautilus is a fifth-generation, RBS-8M design, ultra-deepwater, column-stabilized, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, designed to drill subsea wells for oil exploration and production.

She was designed by Reading & Bates RBS-8M and built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2000 at the Ulsan shipyard in South Korea. Deepwater Nautilus can operate at water depths up to 8000 ft and has drilling depth down to 30000 ft.

Drilling
In 2000, Deepwater Nautilus set the world water-depth record for an offshore drilling rig operating in moored configuration at 7785 ft at the Alaminos Canyon block 557 in the United States sector of the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2002, Deepwater Nautilus discovered oil at the Shell-operated Great White oil field in Alaminos Canyon block 813.

On March 6, 2002, she drilled a well in water depth of 8009 ft at the Great White field (Alaminos Canyon block 857).

In the same year, the new record was set at 8070 ft while drilling at the Alaminos Canyon block 813.

This record was surpassed in 2003 by waterdepth of 8717 ft at the Alaminos Canyon block 857.

In 2004, the water-depth of 8951 ft was achieved in Lloyd block 399.

In March 2009, Deepwater Nautilus discovered oil at the Appomattox prospect in Mississippi Canyon blocks 391 and 392.

Incidents
In 2004, at the time of Hurricane Ivan Deepwater Nautilus broke free from its location.

In 2005, as a result of Hurricane Katrina Deepwater Nautilus had drifted off location. All personnel had been safely evacuated before the approach of the storm.

The rig's mooring system revealed significant damage and the rig lost approximately 3200 ft of marine riser and a portion of the subsea well control system.

Less than a month later, Deepwater Nautilus broke free during Hurricane Rita.