Up until 2011, Sevan Drilling was part of Sevan Marine, which builds FPSOs. In 2011 Sevan Drilling was separated from Sevan Marine becoming an independent company. Sevan Drilling was established by Sevan Marine in 2006 for the purpose of building state-of-the-art, ultra deepwater drilling rigs based on the Sevan 650 design, commonly known as the bucket design. Later the same year, Sevan Marine completed a private placement for the purpose of financing, in part, its drilling business, and an order for Sevan Driller was placed with China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) in 2007. Sevan Drilling owns and operates two rigs of the cylindrical Sevan design. Both rigs have long-term charter contracts with Petrobras in Brazil for deepwater and ultra-deepwater plays including the pre-salt.