LONDON, February 11, 2021
Siemens Energy said it has signed an agreement with Maersk Drilling to upgrade two ultra-harsh environment CJ70 jack-up drilling rigs in the North Sea with hybrid power plants using lithium-ion energy storage.
The rigs – the Maersk Intrepid and Maersk Integrator – were retrofitted with BlueVault batteries from Siemens Energy. They are the first jack-ups to employ a combination of hybrid, low-emission solutions on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
The batteries have enabled Maersk Drilling to reduce the runtime of onboard combustion engines and maintain an operational setpoint where energy efficiency is maximized, said the statement from Siemens Energy.
The initial data point shows that Maersk Intrepid in the first month of operations with the full set of upgrades installed was able to reduce CO2 emissions by 25 percent and NOx emissions by 95 percent compared to the baseline average for the rig, it added.