Offshore oil drilling group Transocean claimed on Tuesday that it had a set a world record of deep water drilling at a depth of 3,107 metres (10,194 feet) off the coast of India.
The depth was achieved by ultra-deepwater drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2, surpassing the previous record of 10,011 feet, also set by Transocean in 2003 in the Gulf of Mexico, the group said in a statement.
It set “what the company believes a world record for the deepest water depth by an offshore drilling rig of 10,194 feet of water while working for Reliance Industries offshore India.”
2010 disaster
Transocean owned BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last year in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 rig workers and triggering a huge spill along the southern U.S. coast.
The disaster also highlighted the growing exploitation of hard-to-reach and costly deep water fields beneath the ocean floor, driven by dwindling resources and higher oil prices.
By comparison, the North Sea fields have been largely exploited at water depths of around 100 metres.
