Hyundai Heavy Industries Group said Sunday that its subsidiary Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries has won an order to build a semi-submersible oil-drilling ship for Norway’s leading offshore drilling company Seadrill.

The $570 million deal will pave the way for the company to enter the lucrative offshore plant business, said Hyundai Samho, the world’s fourth largest shipbuilder in terms of production capacity.

The deal includes the entire process of engineering, procurement and construction of the drilling rig and the optional building of a new ship, which could create additional orders, the company said. 

The 123-meter-long and 78- meter-wide ship is scheduled to be completed and handed over to the Norwegian company by the fourth quarter of 2014.

The ship, which is expected to be dispatched to the North Sea, can work in 80 to 3,000 meter-deep water and drill up to 12.2 kilometers below sea level.

Compared to a floating vessel, a semi-submersible drilling rig is less affected by waves and due to its stability, it can work in rough waters like the North Sea, the company said.

The company, together with Hyundai Heavy Industries, had succeeded in building a 320,000-ton floating production, storage and offloading unit in 2007.

“With the new order, we have begun to pave the way to extend investment into the high value-added offshore plant field,” the company said in a statement.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)