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

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

flagged Flagging may refer to: *Running out of time on a chess clock *Flagging (tape) Flagging is a coloured non-adhesive tape used in marking objects. It is commonly made of PVC or vinyl, though wood fibre cellulose-based biodegradable flagging also ex ...

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. 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 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ( ko, 대우조선해양; abbreviated 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 Group (M ...

(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. Geoje in Korean means "great rescue", from the syllables "geo" (Korean: ...

, 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 island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

-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 __NOTOC__ Taşucu (Greek: Ὅλμοι, Holmoi) is a small town of Silifke, Mersin Province, Turkey. It obtained the status of Municipality after the local elections in Turkey, 1955. By the new regulations on the constitution, it legally got the sta ...

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 ( tr, Türk bayrağı), is a red flag featuring a white star and crescent. The flag is often called "the red flag" (), and is referred to as "the red banner" () in the Turkish national a ...

on her

prow The bow () is the forward part of the 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 forward-most part ...

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

Name

The drillship is renamed in honor of Abdul Hamid II (), the 34th

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, it ...

, like the three other drillships of the TPAO, '' Fatih'' ( Mehmed II, known as ''Fatih'', the "conqueror"), '' Yavuz'' (

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite las ...

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

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...

, 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 deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maximum known ...

, the deepest place on earth. The vessel's drawworks 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, which is a global forever UID). An ...

311021300 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 town and district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, 180 km east of the city of Antalya. Gazipaşa is a quiet rural district famous for its bananas, oranges and international airport of Gazi ...

Antalya la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 07xxx , area_code = (+90) 242 , registration_plate = 07 , blank_name = Licence plate ...

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 hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...

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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

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