Shelf Drilling and ADES Drilling have already found takers for their suspended rigs; Borr’s 122-m jack-up Arabia I has mobilised to Bahrain’s Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Co after its suspension began in April and Arabian Drilling chief executive Ghassan Mirdad said the company is actively seeking opportunities to redeploy its rigs with other clients once their suspension periods begin
Earlier this year, Saudi Aramco startled markets by pausing its high-profile oil expansion programme, cutting its planned production capacity to 12M barrels per day (b/d), about 1M b/d below its previously announced targets.
In the process, the oil major sent suspension notices to several drilling contractors with as many as 22 jack-up contracts reportedly suspended due to the production rejig.
Among these, Arabian Drilling confirmed the 12-month suspension of three contracts for its jack-ups with Saudi Aramco have yet to be finalised but are expected to take effect towards the end of Q3 2024.
Arabian Drilling chief executive Ghassan Mirdad said the company is actively seeking opportunities to redeploy these rigs with other clients. It reported 100% utilisation for its offshore rig fleet in Q1 2024. Nine of the company’s 11 jack-ups are currently working for Aramco.
Shelf Drilling and ADES Drilling, also affected by the suspension, have already found takers for their affected rigs. ADES signed a new deal with Thailand’s PTTEP for one of its jack-ups. The firm 18-month contract includes a nine-month extension option. The contract is worth US$94M and drilling offshore Thailand is expected to begin Q2 2024. The company expanded its Asia-Pacific presence last year after Indonesia’s Pertamina Drilling Services Indonesia awarded jack-up Emerald Driller a long-term deal which is due to begin in the second half of the year.
All four of the Shelf Drilling rigs that received suspension notices from Saudi Aramco have commenced their suspension periods of up to 12 months. Shelf Drilling Achiever, Shelf Drilling Victory, Main Pass I and Main Pass IV are currently suspended, but Shelf Drilling said it is actively marketing Achiever, Victory and Main Pass IV for other work. Main Pass I remains stacked in Saudi Arabia.
Rig moves
Arabia I, Borr’s 122-m jack-up, suspended for 12-months by Aramco in April, has mobilised to Bahrain’s Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Co. During the suspension period, Borr Drilling intends to seek alternative engagement for the rig.
Odfjell Drilling’s Hercules semisub will move to Canada to work for Equinor. The rig recently completed a drilling campaign for Galp Energia in PEL83 offshore Namibia resulting in the Mopane discovery.
Mubadala Energy has announced “another substantial gas discovery” from the Tangkulo-1 exploration well, located in South Andaman, offshore Indonesia. Mubadala serves as the block operator with an 80% stake (Harbour Energy holds a 20% stake). Seadrill’s West Capella drillship drilled the well to a depth of 3,400 m. Back in December 2023, Mubadala Energy announced the Layaran-1 gas discovery in North Sumatra with the potential for over 6 tcf of gas-in-place.
Contracts
In Africa, Angola continues to yield bounties. This week, ExxonMobil reported discovering hydrocarbons on Block 15 offshore Angola.
Likembe-01 in the Kizomba B development area was drilled between February and April 2024. Angola’s state-owned APNG confirmed the discovery this month. The well is located in water depths of 1,200 m and was drilled to a final depth of just over 3,000 m with the drillship Valaris DS-9.
And in Block 52, Petronas has reported a new discovery on the Fusaea-1 exploration well drilled with the drillship Noble Voyager. Block 52, which covers an area of 4,749 km2, is located north of the coast of Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city, within the prospective Suriname-Guyana basin. Petronas Suriname E&P serves as block operator and has a joint-venture with Exxon.
This is Petronas’ third discovery in the block and the operator said it is completing further evaluation to determine the full extent of this discovery and its potential integrated development with the Roystonea and Sloanea discoveries previously made in the same block.
The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) issued two drilling permits this week.
PGNiG Upstream Norway received consent for exploration drilling in the Norwegian Sea. The consent relates to drilling operations on the Tomcat 6305/10-1 well, which is located in production licence PL 1055. The licence is operated by PGNiG with Shell participating as a partner and will be drilled with Odfjell Drilling’s semisubmersible, Deepsea Yantai. The rig is currently in the North Sea at the Cerisa well location in the Vår Energi-operated PL 636.
Havtil consented to Aker BP drilling the Storjo West 6507/2-7 S well located in the Aker-operated production licence PL 261 located at a water depth of 340 m. Deepsea Nordkapp, another Odfjell semisub, will drill this well.
And in Britain, Serica Energy has received final approval from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) to develop the 100% owned and operated Belinda field which will tied back to the Triton FPSO following the drilling of the development well which is scheduled to take place in the first half of 2025.
Belinda is the fifth well in Serica’s Triton area drilling campaign, which commenced in April this year using the COSLInnovator drilling rig. All these wells are designed to enhance production via the Triton FPSO.
Serica estimates proven and probable reserves at about 5 million barrels of oil equivalent (80% oil). Production is scheduled to commence in Q1 2026 following the tie-back work to Triton.
Riviera Maritime Media’s Offshore Support Journal Conference, Americas will be held in Houston, Texas, 11-12 June 2024, click here for more information on this industry-leading event
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.