Saudi Arabia’s International Maritime Industries (IMI) has inked a drilling rigs license agreement with GustoMSC, an NOV company, according to Pipeline Oil and Gas Magazine.

Under the agreement, IMI will be responsible for building and delivering drilling rigs to GustoMSC’s clients with a new GustoMSC drilling jack-up design. This will aid in benefiting from IMI’s planned modern manufacturing capabilities.

Consequently, IMI will be ready for its first production operations, which is expected to be in 2021.

“This is a major step for IMI in securing the required knowledge and getting the best rig design which will be tailored to our state-of-the-art construction capabilities, ready for decades to come,” Fathi K Al Saleem, IMI CEO, said.

“IMI is an important part of the Saudi Vision 2030. Contributing to that vision is a great opportunity for us to serve key clients in Saudi Arabia and the region.  As a design company and supplier of dedicated capital equipment, we see an important partner in IMI,” Nils van Nood, GustoMSC Managing Director, noted.

GustoMSC will mainly deliver the basic design, in addition to tailoring one of its well-established CJ-series of drilling jack-ups.

With a focus on IMI’s specific construction and installation capabilities, the overall rig construction time will decrease.

It is noteworthy that the IMI rig design is targeted to be a ‘Fit for Purpose’ solution in order to enable safe, efficient, and reliable drilling for Saudi Arabia.