The delay of an offshore oil drilling platform originally scheduled to arrive in Cuban waters early this year is “nothing extraordinary,” CubaPetróleo’s head of exploration said during an earth sciences conference in Havana.

The Scarabe0 9 semi-submersible, owned by a subsidiary of Italy’s ENI S.p.A., is expected to arrive “this summer,” Rafael Tenreyro told reporters during Geociencias 2011, without giving a date. “Everybody is anxious,” he added. “99 percent of the platforms are late. It’s normal, it’s not extraordinary.”

ENI had the platform built in China; it is now undergoing modifications and final testing at the KeppelFels shipyards in Singapore. Scarabeo 9 was first contracted for exploratory drilling by a consortium led by Repsol YPF, and is scheduled to drill at least five more exploratory prospects for international oil companies in Cuba, such as India’s ONGC and Malaysia’s Petronas.

The 53,000-ton Scarabeo 9 is a sixth-generation Frigstad D90 ultra deepwater drilling semi-submersible exploration and development unit. It is capable of working in up to 12,000 ft of water depth and has a 50,000 ft (9.5 miles) drilling depth capacity.  The semi-submersible will have accommodations for the full-time support of up to 200 workers.

The Scarabeo 9 is being built according to Norwegian safety standards, which would have prevented an accident such as last year’s spill at the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Tenreyro said.

Scarabeo 9

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