Rigs roundup: TotalEnergies drilling in Nigeria, making plans for Suriname and South Africa

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Ventura Offshore has confirmed its 3,048-m semisubmersible rig SSV Catarina has started its contract with Eni in Indonesia. Following the rig’s recent departure from Balikpapan, Ventura Offshore has confirmed SSV Catarina began its contract with Eni in Indonesia on 17 August. The drilling programme comprises four firm wells with an expected duration of approximately 300 days. In addition to the firm wells, there are five priced well options - four in Indonesia and one in Vietnam - that, if exercised, could extend the contract until Q2 2026.The firm contract period is valued at approximately US$72M, excluding integrated services.

ADES 114-m jack-up Emerald Driller has completed its first well for Pertamina offshore Indonesia. Development well TITI A17 was spud at the end of June 2024 and completed on 12 August 2024. This is the first well drilled by Emerald Driller under a three-year term with Pertamina, awarded in late 2023. A two-year option is also available. 

Equinor has secured a drilling permit from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate for wellbore 6608/10-R-2 H in production licence 1013 in the Norwegian Sea. Equinor plans to start drilling the wildcat well targeting the Løvmeis prospect in September. The water depth at the site is 358 m. It will use 500-m Transocean Encourage semisubmersible drilling rig for the operation. The company previously also received consent from The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) for this operation. The production licence PL1013 is operated by Equinor, with PGNiG Upstream Norway and Petrolia NOCO as partners.

Stena Drilling’s 3,048-m drillship Stena Forth has arrived at the Lixus licence off Morocco and drilling operations have started on the Energean-operated Anchois-3 well (previously known as Anchois East).

"The Anchois gas project holds exciting potential. At 18 bcm it is Morocco’s largest undeveloped discovery, with an additional 21 bcm of undrilled prospective resources offering significant upside," Energean said, when announcing the drilling start.

Stena Forth arrived on site after completing regulatory surveys and contract preparations in Las Palmas. In April 2024, Energean became the operator of the Lixus licence after completing its farm-in into Chariot Ltd’s licences offshore Morocco. In a statement, Chariot also confirmed the drilling had started and said Anchois-3 drilling and flow testing operations were expected to take approximately two months. Chariot said Anchois-3 was a multi-objective well with distinct operational phases. The pilot hole phase will see an initial pilot drilled. Its main objective is to evaluate the potential of the Anchois Footwall prospect, located in an undrilled fault block to the east of the main field, which has a 2U Prospective Resource estimate of 170 bcf in the main O Sand target. The main hole phase will see a side-track then be drilled to intersect and further evaluate the discovered gas sands in the Anchois field, with a current 2C Contingent Resource estimate of 637 bcf, in the eastern part of the main fault block of the field. The deeper Anchois North Flank prospect will then be drilled, which has additional 2U Prospective Resource estimate of 213 bcf and which will also derisk the nearby Anchois South Flank prospect with a 2U Prospective Resource estimate of 372 bcf. Well flow testing will then be performed on selected encountered gas sands to evaluate reservoir and well productivity. The well will then be suspended to enable it to be used as a potential future producer.

Australian company Santos stated its Barossa gas project is nearly 80% complete and expected to begin operations in Q3 2025.The third of six planned Barossa wells has been drilled and completed, delivering better-than-expected reservoir results, according to the company. Santos, which is utilising the Valaris MS-1 semisubmersible drilling rig for the project, reported the well was successfully drilled, completed and flow-tested during clean-up operations. Initial results from the well indicate excellent reservoir quality and thickness, with a flow rate exceeding predrill expectations. The predicted well capacity is approximately 300 MMscf/d. Additionally, Santos confirmed the completion of the gas export pipeline, which will transport gas from the Barossa field to Darwin LNG. The Barossa FPSO vessel is currently 86% complete and is on track to sail to Australia in Q1 2025.

Santos expects to drill the Halyard-2 infill well in the Carnarvon Basin off Australia in late 2024.The well site is located in the Greater East Spar field located in Commonwealth waters, off Australia. The Halyard-2 well will replace the existing Halyard-1 well, which is now depleted. In the environment plan, accepted by NOPSEMA in July, Santos said drilling operations are expected to take 50 days. Santos will use Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Apex semisubmersible drilling rig to drill the Halyard-2 well. The well is expected to come online in early 2025.

ExxonMobil is drilling the Haimara-4 appraisal well on the Stabroek block offshore Guyana with Stena Drilling 3,048-m drillship Stena Carron. A notice to mariners indicated Stena Carron could continue work at Haimara-4 into late October 2024. The well is the latest in several appraisal wells following up ExxonMobil’s 2019 Haimara discovery. The Haimara-2 appraisal well was drilled in 2023 and Noble Corp’s 3,658-m drillship Noble Sam Croft began drilling the Haimara-3 well in July 2024. ExxonMobil has five drillships working offshore Guyana at this time, including Stena Carron, Noble Sam Croft, Noble Tom Madden, Noble Don Taylor and Noble Bob Douglas. 

OMV has discovered gas in the deepwater wildcat well 6605/6-1 S, targeting the Haydn/Monn prospects in the Norwegian Sea. OMV used semisubmersible Transocean Norge to drill the well in a water depth of 1,064 m. This is the first well to be drilled in production licence 1194. The discovery site lies approximately 65 km southwest of the Aasta Hansteen field and 310 km west of Sandnessjøen.

Preliminary estimates suggest the primary exploration target, the Springar Formation, holds between four and 12M standard cubic metres (m³) of recoverable oil equivalent (oe). Additional discoveries were made in two other levels, with uncertain volumes. However, preliminary estimates indicate between 0.5 and 5M m³ of recoverable oe in the lower part of Springar Formation, and between 0.5 and 6M m³ of recoverable oe in the secondary exploration target, the Nise Formation, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate said. In a separate statement, OMV said the well encountered gas with estimated recoverable volumes between 30M and 140M boe in total. OMV operates the licence in partnership with Vår Energi and Inpex Idemitsu. The partners will further evaluate the discovery for a potential gas field development linked to the nearby infrastructure, with the Aasta Hansteen platform a likely host. “This discovery could unlock significant potential in the area and extend the life of the Aasta Hansteen gas hub, in which OMV already has a stake,” said OMV executive vice president energy Berislav Gašo. Well 6605/6-1 S was drilled to respective vertical and measured depths of 4,641 m and 5,123 m below sea level, and was terminated in the Nise Formation in the Upper Cretaceous. The well has now been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Mobilisation/rig moves

Valaris 3,658-m drillship Valaris DS-10 has completed work for Shell at the Bonga field offshore Nigeria and is now relocating to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, where the rig is expected to be available in the near term. Valaris DS-10 had been working for Shell since 2018. Earlier this month, Valaris stated it expects the rig to be available in the near term, with some short-term opportunities for Valaris DS-10 and its other rigs possible Q4 2024. 

Malaysia’s Petronas Carigali is set to move Velesto’s 107-m jack-up Naga 3 from the Cemumar-1 well site to Labuan.With the support of JM Ehsan and Mutiara Ratu vessels, the rig will be towed from the well site off Sarawak to Asian Supply Base, Labuan. The towing operation is scheduled between 27 August and 31 August, 2024. This also marks the end of the Naga 3 contract with Petronas Carigali. The contract began in Q3 2023 after the rig previously completed the PTTEP contract in Malaysia.

Rig deliveries

China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL) has taken delivery of 122-m jack-up drilling rig Hai Yang Shi You 948. The ABS-classed jack-up of the F&G JU-2000E design was originally ordered by Seadrill as part of a multi-rig order. Seadrill eventually relinquished the orders in 2018 and 2019. In September 2023, COSL agreed to buy four of these stranded rigs from Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Co Ltd. According to available info, Hai Yang Shi You 948 (ex-West Hyperion) was delivered 15 August, more than a decade since the first steel was cut. According to ABS data, Hai Yang Shi You 945 (ex-West Titan) was delivered in October 2023, Hai Yang Shi You 946 (ex-West Rhea) in November 2023, and Hai Yang Shi You 947 (ex-West Tethys) was delivered in late December 2023. All four rigs are of the F&G JU-2000E design.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Esgian’s website as Esgian Rig Analytics Market Roundup (Week 34), with contributions by Nermina Kulovic Cilic, Matthew Donovan, Bato Tomic, Sofia Forestieri, and Fernando Ortiz.

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