Upgrade of drilling rig injects R130m into Cape economy

RAY SMUTS
THE PORT of Cape Town’s ‘A’ berth, for more than a century home to the lavender-hulled Union-Castle mail ships plying regularly between South Africa and the UK, began assuming proportions of a giant anthill recently as hundreds of ‘workers’ scurried to and fro as the prelude to a massive upgrade of the towering drilling rig, Sedco 709. The project is expected to inject at least R130 million into the Western Cape economy. The Mother City port has for several years been intent on establishing itself as a hub for oil and gas service vessels, particularly those serving the booming West African exploration industry, but there are those who say it has not done quite enough to meet the challenge. This despite a R4 million NPA spend on maintaining equipment but giving the thumbs down to an industry request for cranes at Sturrock Dry Dock, largest in the southern hemisphere. The upgrade of the Sedco 709, a mobile semi-submersible drilling rig, is not only a first for Cape Town, where she will spend at least two months, but indeed for South Africa. The rig, which has worked off the Angola coast but is expected to join Shell on a two-year exploration contract off the Nigerian coast later in the year, is operated by Transocean Incorporated Inc, world’s largest off-shore drilling contractor. Toward the end of last year, the group initiated enquiries, followed by inspections in loco at the ports of Saldanha and Cape Town, eventually deciding on the latter.