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.

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 8,000 feet (2,400 m) and has drilling depth down to 30,000 feet (9,100 m).

In 2000, Deepwater Nautilus set the world water-depth record for an offshore drilling rig operating in moored configuration at 7,785 feet (2,373 m) 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 8,009 feet (2,441 m) at the Great White field (Alaminos Canyon block 857).

In the same year, the new record was set at 8,070 feet (2,460 m) while drilling at the Alaminos Canyon block 813.