Catalist-listed SBI Offshore, the specialist in the marine and offshore industry, says the group’s manufacturing facility, Jiangyin SBI Offshore Equipment Co., in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, China, has been audited by Aker MH AS (MH), one of the world’s largest provider of drilling equipment packages, and is now qualified as a supplier to MH.

SBI Offshore’s CEO Jonathan Hui says, “Following more than two years of preparations at our end and numerous discussions with various departments in MH over Asian rig builders’ desire for equipment suppliers to manufacture their equipment closer to their yards, MH acknowledges that SBI’s China manufacturing facility is “deemed likely to be a competitive supplier to the offshore industry”.

SBI Offshore also noted that on March 15, Upstream Online reported that Cosco Shipyard has won a turnkey contract worth more than US$500 million ($700 million) to build a second deepwater drilling unit, Sevan Brasil, for delivery in the first quarter of 2012 and that Sevan Brasil is expected to be equipped with drilling equipment set similar to that supplied by MH for Sevan Driller, which was delivered in November 2009.

SBI Offshore says the approval by MH, which has annual revenue of US$9 billion, marks a milestone in SBI’s strategy to shift towards more contract engineering business under which it will manufacture certain components and equipment in China.

This contract engineering allows both major equipment suppliers such as MH and the rig builders in Asia to reduce time-to-market and delivery costs by building some of the parts in China where costs are lower.