The high concentration of employed jack-ups and floaters continues. Westwood Global Energy Group reports 402 jack-up units are currently active, with the North Sea and Middle East adding new units week-on-week
North Sea drilling received a massive boost this week after Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy greenlit investments for 19 oil and gas developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Aker BP emerged as the largest beneficiary, with the company’s Yggdrasil, Valhall PWP, Fenris and Symra projects all receiving approval. To remind readers, last month Aker BP increased the reserves estimate for the Yggdrasil development after successfully drilling the Øst Frigg Beta/Epsilon exploration well in the Yggdrasil area. Company estimates now peg the recoverable volume at about 53~90 mmboe, twice the size of the original predrill estimate.
Irpa, Verdande (Equinor), Dvalin North, Maria (Wintershall Dea) and Berling (OMV) are the other major projects to receive the go-ahead.
OMV has now awarded TechnipFMC an engineering, procurement, construction and installation deal worth between US$75M~$250M for the Berling development. The field is located about 20 km northwest of the Asgard Field in the North Sea and will be developed with a subsea facility tied back to Asgard B platform.
OMV and its partners Equinor and DNO Norge will invest Nkr9.1Bn (US$854M) to develop the field, which is estimated to contain 45M barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable resources.
Moving to the Caribbean, CGX Energy and Frontera Energy Corp have discovered oil at the Wei-1 well on the Corentyne block, approximately 200 km offshore from Georgetown, Guyana. The joint venture used Noble Corp’s Discoverer semi-submersible mobile drilling unit for the operation. Wei-1 well encountered 210 ft of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in the Santonian horizon.
While the partners obtained core samples from the Santonian, a tool failure meant oil samples were not obtained. The companies said the samples will be verified by an independent third-party laboratory over the next three months to define net pay. Wei-1 is one of two wells located in Guyana’s Corentyne block. Kawa-1 struck light oil and gas condensate last May.
A stranded jack-up has been awarded a multi-year deal in South America. The rig and its owner went unnamed but it is known that the jack-up was originally constructed in Singapore in 2020 but has remained in the construction yard following the global pandemic.
With the recovery of the upstream oil and gas market, the rig’s owners have clinched a new deal. Offshore drilling rig service and inspection firm ModuSpec has been contracted to support the rig’s reactivation ahead of the unit commence a drilling programme in Q4 2023.
According to ModuSpec, the company has worked with several clients to bring restore stranded assets over the past 24 months. ModuSpec operations manager Mark Watson said, “We are delighted to be chosen for this contract. There are around 50 stranded newbuild rigs located in the shipyard which could be reactivated and made available to the market.”
“We have to take into account that this rig has been stranded for nearly three years and special attention is needed to ensure the equipment and systems can function safely, as intended and within compliance.”
Contracts and extensions
Transocean won a 16-well award for the Transocean Equinox semi-submersible in Australia for a consortium of four operators. The company said the estimated 380-day campaign will add US$184M to its backlog and the engagement includes options that, if fully exercised, could keep the rig in Australia into 2028.
Transocean Equinox’s day rate was not stated but a simple inference from the details provided put it at more than US$480,000 per day. The contract is expected to commence Q1 2025 in direct continuation of the rig’s previously announced five-well, 300-day commitment in Australia with a major operator, currently expected to start Q1 2024.
Saipem clinched two new offshore drilling deals from unnamed clients worth roughly US$550M. The contracts are for drilling work in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean Sea.
Saipem’s Perro Negro 7 jack-up drilling unit will continue working in the Middle East in the second half of the year after securing a decade-long extension to the existing contract.
In the Mediterranean, Saipem will deploy its Scarabeo 9 semi-submersible unit for an estimated six months with an optional period. The sixth-generation drilling rig is capable of operating in depths of up to 3,650 m.
Bermuda-based Northern Ocean confirmed Deepsea Mira has commenced drilling work for a subsidiary of TotalEnergies offshore Namibia. The contract for the semi-submersible rig has a firm duration of 300 days with two unexercised options which will extend the term through all of 2024. Odfjell Drilling prepared and mobilised the rig to Namibia and is providing operations management for the duration of this contract.
Northern Ocean revealed it is has amended the credit facility with Sterna Finance Ltd to provide a new tranche of capital worth US$50M with a three-month tenor. An official statement read, “This provides the company with sufficient time to normalise working capital from both rigs.”
The company’s other rig, Deepsea Bollsta, is also under contract in Namibia working for Shell Namibia until June 2024.
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