Rigs roundup: Shelf sells jack-up; Stena DrillMAX back in Guyana

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Contracts

Market sources indicate ADNOC has exercised an extension option for 107-m jack-up drilling rig Aryabhatt 1 in Abu Dhabi. Managed by Foresight Drilling, the 2013-built jack-up commenced operations for ADNOC in September 2020. This extension marks the second of two options included in the original contract, which comprised a firm three-year period, followed by two one-year options. The KFELS B Class design rig is now expected to remain under contract with ADNOC until September 2025.

Petrobras has awarded two floating rig contracts to Constellation Oil Services for work at the Roncador field in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. Valued at US$1Bn, the two contracts will see Constellation 3,048-m drillship Laguna Star and Hanwha Drilling’s 3,658-m newbuild Tidal Action operate for Petrobras for around 2.5 years. The contracts are expected to commence in Q3 2025. Constellation stated the US$1Bn total includes all mobilisation fees, extension option clauses and additional services requested by Petrobras.

Laguna Star is a sixth-generation drillship, owned and managed by Constellation. The rig is currently under contract to Petrobras, with work under this term expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.

Tidal Action is a newbuild seventh-generation drillship, built at the Hanwha Ocean (formerly DSME) yard in South Korea. The rig was previously called West Libra and was ordered by Seadrill in 2013. Hanwha Ocean company Hanwha Drilling will become the owner of Tidal Action upon its departure from the shipyard. 

Northern Ocean Ltd has signed a strategic alliance agreement in Ghana and secured a one-well contract for 2,286-m semisubmersible Deepsea Bollsta with the Springfield group of companies. Deepsea Bollsta will be used for a well test of the Afina 1X well and other activities. The firm contract duration for the well test is 30 to 35 days, with work to commence early in Q4 2024. The agreed clean day rate is US$440,000, excluding mobilisation and demobilisation. With the new contract award for Deepsea Bollsta, Northern Ocean has an estimated aggregate revenue backlog between US$85M and US$105M, excluding bonuses, reimbursables and undeclared options. 

The newly fixed contract in Ghana will precede a 63-day contract with an undisclosed operator offshore Namibia that was fixed in late June 2024. Market sources have indicated this work is with a subsidiary of Chevron, and will see Deepsea Bollsta drilling an exploration well on PEL 90. 

The sixth-generation harsh environment semi-submersible Deepsea Bollsta, which is managed by Odfjell Drilling, has been in Namibian waters since completing work with Shell earlier this year and has recently undergone class surveys.

Northern Ocean chief executive Arne Jacobson stated the initial short-term work with Springfield brings the rig back into operation earlier than anticipated. Springfield and Northern Ocean have committed to an exclusivity period until 1 January 2025 in which the partners will aim to enter into a firm agreement for long-term field development drilling offshore Ghana, starting mid-2025. 

Rig moves

ARO Drilling’s 61-m jack-up rig ARO 2003 has been relocated to Zamil Shipyard in Dammam from an offshore location in Saudi Arabia. The Baker Marine BMC-200-IC design jack-up is currently under contract with Saudi Aramco, with operations scheduled to continue into Q1 2026. The ABS-classed rig, built in 1982, has now arrived off Ras Tanura. The ARO 2003 is due for its special periodic survey (SPS) by 5 October 2024, and it is believed the move to the port is to facilitate the upcoming SPS work.

Japan Drilling’s 500-m semisubmersible rig Hakuryu-5 is nearing the end of its contract with Petronas Carigali and will depart Malaysia soon. The third-generation unit has been working with Petronas since September 2022. The rig is expected to be towed from Petronas Carigali’s Silungen-1 well, located off Sarawak, around 5 October, before heading to the Benoi Yard in Singapore. Following an extended stay at the shipyard, the 1977-built rig is scheduled to move to Japan, where it will start a carbon capture and storage campaign in early 2025.

COSL’s 750-m semisub COSLInnovator was expected to leave the Gannet field and move to the Guillemot North West field in the UK to arrive at the Guillemot North West field location on 27 September or 28 September 2024 and stay there for approximately 83 days. The rig has been working under a four-well contract, managed by Petrofac for Serica and Dana Petroleum, since April 2024. The first well was a sidetrack of the existing well (B1z) on the Bittern field. Other wells in the campaign include the GE-05 well on Gannet E, the EC well on Guillemot North West, and the EV-02 well on Evelyn. Following the completion of this campaign, the semisub is scheduled to drill a development well at the Belinda field, under a contract which is also managed by Petrofac. After that, it is scheduled for a yard stay where it will prepare for its two-year contract with Equinor in Norway.

COSL’s 114-m jack-up COSLSeeker arrived in Singapore from Saudi Arabia on 25 September 2024 aboard heavy-lift vessel Zhen Hua 33. The rig has since been moved to a shipyard in Singapore ahead of its upcoming relocation to Thailand, where it is expected to start a new contract with PTTEP between mid-December 2024 and mid-January 2025. COSLSeeker’s contract in Saudi Arabia was suspended earlier this year following a directive from the Saudi Ministry of Energy on output targets, leading COSL to seek new market opportunities for the rig.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Esgian’s website as Esgian Rig Analytics Market Roundup (Week 39), with contributions by Nermina Kulovic Cilic, Matthew Donovan, Bato Tomic, Sofia Forestieri, and Fernando Ortiz.