(Bloomberg) — Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world's third-largest shipbuilder, said it won $1.46 billion of orders from the US.

A $700 million order for a semi-submersible drilling rig with an option for another unit was placed by an unidentified US customer, the Seoul-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.

Another US order for a $760 million drill ship, announced on July 31, was included in the statement.

Oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA are expected to spend a record $98.7 billion this year to search for and produce fuel as consumption rises in China and India.

Orders for offshore structures have extended backlogs at shipyards to record levels with deliveries stretching into 2012.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, plans to invest $30 billion in 40 drilling ships and rigs to develop a field off the country's coast.

Petrobras, as the Brazilian company is known, has leased about 80 percent of the world's deepest-drilling offshore rigs for exploring the Tupi field, expected to start in April 2009.

Tupi, located in the Santos Basin southeast of Sao Paulo, may hold enough oil to supply every refinery on the US East Coast for 15 years.

The semi-submersible drilling rig will be delivered by September 2011 and the drill ship by June 2011, Daewoo Shipbuilding said today.

"Demand for offshore units such as drilling rigs and drill ships is surging, helped by high oil prices," Daewoo Shipbuilding Chief Executive Officer Nam Sang Tae said in the statement. "We'll be able to win $6 billion worth of orders for offshore products by the end of year."

The shipbuilder won $5 billion worth of offshore contracts last year out of total $21.5 billion orders, the statement said.

Daewoo Shipbuilding has won $10.9 billion worth of orders this year, achieving 62 percent of its full-year goal of $17.5 billion, according to the statement. Its backlog has increased to about $43 billion.

Daewoo Shipbuilding rose 2.4 percent to close at 36,000 won in Seoul. The stock has fallen 30 percent this year, compared with an 18 percent decline in South Korea's Kospi index.