Houston (Platts)--7Dec2012/718 pm EST/018 GMT

Premium shallow-water rig contractor Prospector Offshore Drilling, which is building four jackup rigs in a Dalian shipyard in northeast China, said Friday the yard has been asked by the engineering firm that designed the rigs to temporarily suspend work on their jacking systems until they are tested.

Friede & Goldman Marketing has supplied the rigs' entire jacking systems through its own sub-suppliers, Prospector said in a statement.

The F&G notice to the Dalian yard follows a recent incident involving contract driller Noble F&G design on a jack-up rig currently under construction at a Singapore shipyard (See story, 1840 GMT).

Prospector's first two rigs in Dalian are scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2013, with the second two rigs following in the third quarter of the year.

The Dalian yard had previously experienced issues with some of the components of the jacking systems of the rigs currently under construction at its yard, and was investigating the jacking systems before receiving the letter from F&G, Prospector said.

Prospector said it believes the jacking systems issues, to the extent they concern its rigs, are "limited in scope" and added the driller is cooperating closely with the shipyward, F&G and independent classification society American Bureau of Shipping to resolve the issues.

The driller's first rig, Prospector 1, was previously slated for delivery at the end of January and mobilized to the North Sea for a long-term drilling contract. Prospector was not available for comment on the identity of its client in the North Sea.

But "at this time [we] cannot estimate any impact on the delivery date of Prospector 1 until the evaluation of the jacking system is complete, which is anticipated to be within the next few weeks," the driller added.

Prospector said it is currently developing a number of alternative solutions that would replace any components that might be found non-compliant, and to minimize potential delivery schedule delays.

"We appreciate the prudent steps taken by F&G and [Dalian] to ensure safe delivery of a very high quality drilling unit conforming to our specifications and the highest industry standards," Prospector President and CEO Bill Rose said.

He said the F&G JU2000E jack-up is a "proven design" and noted it has operated in areas like the North Sea. "We expect a quick resolution," Rose said.

Prospector, domiciled in Luxembourg but with corporate offices in Houston, is building a total of six JU2000E high-specification, harsh-environment jackups.

Four are being built in Dalian, while the other two are built being by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, also in China, and slated for delivery in the the first and second quarter of 2014 respectively. All six rigs are of the F&G JU2000E design.

Prospector was also not available for comment on whether jacking system work had been temporarily suspended at the Shanghai shipyard.

According to Prospector's website, the JU2000E design is capable of operating in water depths of a maximum of 400 feet, has a 2 million lb hookload capacity (the amount of hoisting capacity), can drill in high-pressure, high-temperature environments down to 35,000-foot total depths and contains accommodation for 140 people.

--Starr Spencer, starr_spencer@platts.com --Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron_greenhalgh@platts.com