Oil traders pushed the price of Brent crude oil down amid uncertainty over the impact of the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 on the global economic recovery
October contracts for Brent crude (ICE) were down US$0.59 to US$68.92 per barrel on 17 August at 2:40 PM EDT, according to Bloomberg.
However, for the third week in a row, global offshore jack-up rig activity held steady at 345 units, while the number of floaters contracted for the week tumbled three units to 113, according to Westwood Global Energy’s RigLogix. The number of jack-ups drilling in the Middle East and southeast Asia remained unchanged at 119 and 31, respectively, while the North Sea showed a one-unit uptick to 29 during week 33 2021.
In reporting his company’s Q2 results, Vantage Drilling chief executive Ihab Toma said, “The second quarter represented more evidence that the industry is back on the way to recovery,” noting recent contracts for jack-up rigs Aquamarine Driller from CPOC in Malaysia and Sapphire Driller from Trident in Equatorial Guinea in West Africa.
With the return of the jack-up rig Soehanah (to be renamed Pearl Driller) to work in Indonesia, Mr Toma noted six of Vantage’s seven drilling rigs were contracted. Sapphire Driller and Aquamarine Driller were recently awarded three-year contracts to work offshore Qatar, commencing in February and March 2022, respectively. “We look forward to these multi-year programmes commencing alongside Emerald Driller’s campaign in Qatar where we have operated since 2016,” said Mr Toma.
Emerald Driller is contracted by TotalEnergies to drill in Qatar until Q2 2023.
Assets to switch hands in Gulf of Mexico
Offshore drilling activity in the US Gulf of Mexico remained unchanged for the week, with 14 rigs drilling, according to Baker Hughes. Offshore oil and gas assets in the Gulf of Mexico will change hands as a result of BHP agreeing to sell its oil and gas business to Woodside Energy in an all-stock deal. BHP operates offshore fields in the US Gulf of Mexico, Shenzi and Neptune, and has non-operating interests in Atlantis and Mad Dog, and the Greater Angostura field offshore Trinidad & Tobago, with interests in the Bass Strait, North West Shelf, Macedon and Pyrenees, all offshore Australia.
Offshore Mexico, Lukoil reported it has begun drilling its first exploration well at Block 12 located in the Mexico Gulf. Drilling at the Yoti West-1Exp well is being conducted by the semi-submersible jack-up rig Valaris 8505, following its successful campaign at Block 10, the Sayulita-1 Exp well.
Valaris 8505 will drill in 207 m of water at the Yoti West-1Exp to gather the geological and geophysical data needed to make a decision on further exploration of Block 12.
Working in partnership with operator Eni, Lukoil reported a new oil find estimated at 200M barrels of oil equivalent at Sayulita-1 Exp well, located about 70 km off the coast. The well was drilled by Valaris 8505 in 325 m of water, reaching a total depth of 1,758 m.
New life for an old field
Norwegian energy major Equinor is ‘pumping’ new life into an existing oil field on the Norwegian continental shelf to boost production by about 16M barrels.
Since commissioning in 1997, the 24-year-old Vigdis subsea field has produced oil via the Snorre field of 413M barrels – more than twice original estimates of recoverable resources – and new estimates suggest it holds 475M barrels.
“Increasing production from existing fields is important for value creation on the Norwegian continental shelf,” said Snorre field vice president Asbjørn Løve, vice president for the Snorre field.
Under the Vigdis Boosting project, Equinor and its licence partners – Petoro, Vår Energi, Idemitsu and Wintershall Dea – have invested US$157M for improved oil recovery, which includes a multiphase boosting station increasing production from existing wells. This pump came on stream in May.
“Providing new oil barrels at a highly competitive price, the project has been completed with excellent HSE results,” said Equinor senior vice president for project development Geir Tungesvik.
Connected to the existing pipeline between Vigdis and Snorre A, the boosting station helps bring the well stream from the subsea field up to the platform. In addition, it reduces wellhead pressure, which also leads to higher oil recovery from the wells.
“Advanced processing equipment on the seabed is key in our subsea factory strategy, aiming to increase and extend production from existing fields and contribute to new development solutions on new fields,” said Mr Tungesvik.
The contract for supplying the boosting system, including the template and trawl protection, was awarded to OneSubsea, Schumberger’s subsea technologies division. Engineering was performed in Bergen and assembly at nearby Horsøy.
Working with OneSubsea are pump fabricator Framo Flatøy, subsea template manufacturer RadøyGruppen, and pipeline supplier Luster Mekaniske Industri.
In addition to the subsea boosting station, smaller modifications have been made to Snorre A, which receives the oil from Vigdis and Snorre B, which supplies the new boosting station with power from a new umbilical supplied by Nexans. Wood has been the main supplier for the modifications and the marine operations have been carried out by Oslo-based subsea construction specialist Deep Ocean, using the diesel-electric battery hybrid propulsion construction vessel Edda Freya.
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