Two locally-made large oil rigs were put into operation on Saturday at the Vung Tau Petroleum Port, including the country’s first locally-made jack-up oil rig Tam Dao 3.

Two locally-made large oil rigs were put into operation on Saturday at the Vung Tau Petroleum Port, including the country’s first locally-made jack-up oil rig Tam Dao 3.

The rigs are part of a major engineering project by Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and the PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard (PV Shipyard).

Tam Dao 3 has a drilling capacity to 6.1 kilometer and it can move up or down within a 90 meter range and withstand typhoons with winds of 12th grade on Beaufort scale (more than 72 mph), as well as waves up to 14 meters high.

The jack-up rig was assessed by the US quality evaluation company ABS to meet international standards.

The second rig, Moc Tinh (Jupiter), was manufactured by the Petroleum Equipment Assembly & Metal Structure Joint Stock Company (PVC-MS) to be the largest ever rig made by Vietnamese company. It weighs more than 14,000 tons in total.

President Truong Tan Sang attended the rig's opening ceremony, which was an important milestone as Vietnam is only the third country in the world to manufacture a jack-up oil rig.

At the ceremony, Russian-Vietnamese oil and gas joint venture, Vietsovpetro signed a contract with PV Shipyards to build another 90-meter jack-up oil rig.