It was ‘steady as she goes’ for the global offshore drilling market during week 6, 2022, as the number of offshore jack-ups and floaters contracted remained unchanged week-on-week
Westwood Global Energy’s RigLogix reported 350 offshore jack-ups and 109 floaters under contract. Among the contracts highlighted in her weekly podcast review, Westwood Global Energy senior market analyst Alex Middleton said Thailand’s PTTEP issued two invitations to tender for either a jack-up or tender assist rig for southeast Asia.
Commencement dates are set at the 1 July and 1 August, respectively. The duration of these contracts is five months firm with a three-month option.
She also noted Pertamina Hulu Energi North Sumatera was considering terminating the contract for the deepwater semi-submersible Essar Wildcat in southeast Asia. Ms Middleton said pressure has been mounting on them by Indonesian regulators. “Sources say if the rig is not ready to mobilise in February, a decision will have to be taken,” she said.
The operator has been inquiring regarding the availability of suitable floaters with little or no success.
In drilling activity in the North Sea, Petrofac has signed a contract with Stena Drilling for the harsh-environment semi-submersible Stena Don in support of a one-well campaign on Tailwind Energy’s Gannet E field in the UK Continental Shelf. The contract will start in Q4 2022, lasting an estimated 80 days.
The contract with Petrofac includes an option to extend for up to three optional wells on behalf of other clients with an estimated total option scope duration of 55 days.
Ms Middleton noted a rig swap in the US Gulf of Mexico will see Seadrill ultra-deepwater semi-submersible Sevan Louisiana undertake a contract previously awarded to ultra-deepwater drillship West Neptune. Talos Energy will now take the semi-submersible for its two-well, 90-day contract that was awarded to Seadrill in September 2021. It is understood Sevan Louisiana will be released from its contract with Walter Oil & Gas in the next two weeks and will not drill two previously awarded follow up wells for the operator. It will then go on contract with Eni, and once finished, will go to Talos.
API appeals US Gulf of Mexico lease sale ruling
And speaking of the US Gulf of Mexico, The American Petroleum Institute (API) filed a notice of appeal on 8 February with the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit of the decision by the DC District Court invalidating the results of Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257, the only federal lease sale for natural gas and oil held in 2021. The sale generated US$199M in total bids.
Commenting on the appeal, API senior vice president for Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Frank Macchiarola said, “At a time of rising energy costs and heightened geopolitical tensions, the misguided decision to cancel the only lease sale held last year is contributing to significant uncertainty for US natural gas and oil producers and limiting access to the affordable, reliable energy that’s needed here in the US and around the world.”
The appeal by API follows a decision by a federal judge invalidated the results of the Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257 held by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in November. In his decision, the judge wrote he would “allow the agency an opportunity to remedy its... error as it so chooses in the first instance.”
The court did not specify how BOEM would remedy the situation nor in what timeline.
Environmentalists were enraged by the lease sale which came in the wake of Biden Administration’s commit to US net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at COP26. The administration had carried out the lease sale after a court ruling in June that ruled against its pause on new oil and gas lease sales.
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