The world’s second-largest offshore drilling contractor, Seadrill, got bigger on Thursday, as its high-spec new-build semi-submersible West Eminence left Korean waters for assignment in Brazil.

Thre deepwater unit’s sail-out marked Seadrill’s s eighth rig delivery in 11 months. It also marks a start to the clearing of hundreds of millions of dollars in order backlogs — much of it from Norwegian clients — at Asia’s great shipyards.

The West Eminence was given high load-carrring capacity and a new drill-floor configuration at Samsung Shipyard in South Korea. The rig can drill in water 3,000 metres deep, or good enough for all of Brazilian oil company Petrobras’ assignments.

Petrobras will retain the rig for six years, as the oil company starts pre-salt drilling in the Santos Basin some 350 kilometres offshore. Petrobras has also expressed a great need for rigs, as the country becomes the centre of world oil.

Semisub No. 8 of 11 was not the last and it marks the three-quarter mark of orders for Asian yards from at least Seadrill.

“This concludes the first phase of developing Seadrill into a global deepwater drilling contractor,” a Seadrill statement said.

Meanwhile, oil province Norway is expected to remain undersupplied with rigs, while other oil regions show only slight rig-rate drops. According to an article this month in Scandoil.com affiliate _Scandinavian Oil-Gas Magazine, rigs are still being hired at near-record rates.

Tags: Samsung Heavy Industries, Seadrill