Soumya Mutsuddi, Esgian

This week Shelf Drilling and Vantage Drilling announced new awards and extensions for their rigs. Meanwhile, Saipem chartered a stranded jackup for Saudi work and ADNOC Drilling added another jackup to its fleet.

Contracts 

Vantage Drilling announced a new contract from TotalEnergies for its ultra-deepwater drillship Tungsten Explorer off West Africa. The contract is for a minimum duration of 225 days with three possible options for extension. The rig is currently drilling for TotalEnergies off Cyprus, and mobilisation to West Africa is planned in Q3 2022 at the earliest. Total contract value for the firm period is $79 million. 

Vantage Drilling also informed of new awards and extensions received, through its latest fleet status report. Jackup Topaz Driller received an LOA from an undisclosed operator for six months of work in the Mediterranean. The rig is understood to be currently working for APO off Tunisia and the new engagement is scheduled to commence during Q3 2022. Vantage also secured additional work for jackup Soehanah as Medco Energi exercised options on its contract for the rig. Soehanah is currently working for Medco off Thailand, and as per Vantage’s latest fleet status report, the rig is scheduled to move to Indonesia to continue its engagement with the operator. The duration for the engagement off Indonesia runs into Q2 2023.  

Shelf Drilling announced a three-year contract extension for jackup Shelf Drilling Achiever in direct continuation of its current contract in the Middle East. The rig is presently working for Saudi Aramco on a three-year contract, expected to end in December 2022. Following the extension, the rig is set to remain busy until December 2025. 

The firm period for drillship Maersk Valiant’s ongoing contract off Suriname was extended as TotalEnergies exercised option for an additional well. The contract extension has an estimated duration of 100 days, with expected commencement in August/September 2022 in direct continuation of the rig’s current work. The extension is valued at approx. $24.3 million including integrated services provided and a fee for MPD. Worth noting that another one-well option remains on the contract. 

Drilling and discoveries

Aker BP received regulatory consent for production drilling on the 24/9-12 S (Frosk) discovery in licence 340 off Norway using the harsh-environment semisub Deepsea Nordkapp. The rig's firm charter with Aker BP runs into Q1 2024.

Okea received regulatory consent for the permanent P&A of wells on the Draugen field (production licence 093) off Norway using the harsh-environment semisub COSL Promoter. The rig's engagement with the operator is expected to run until late August/early September, and the next contract is scheduled with Equinor, with commencement expected in Q2 2023. 

APA Corp informed that operations were completed on the Rasper well in its operated Block 53 off Suriname. The well encountered water bearing reservoirs and evaluation of the open hole well logs, and formation and reservoir fluid samples was ongoing. Drilling was carried out by the drillship Noble Gerry de Souza, which will mobilise to drill the next exploration prospect, Baja, in the southwestern corner of Block 53.

Western Gas announced completion of its Sasanof-1 exploration campaign in the company-operated permit WA-519-P off Australia. As was earlier reported, no commercial hydrocarbons were discovered at the Sasanof-1 well, which has been plugged and permanently abandoned. As per Western Gas, semisub Valaris MS-1 was demobilised and departed permit WA-519-P as of 12th June. The rig is next scheduled to undertake a campaign for Santos in Australian waters, with the work running into the last quarter of 2023.

ConocoPhillips concluded the drilling of wildcat well 6507/4-3 S (licence 1064) off Norway, with the well encountering an approx. 1-metre gas column. Preliminary estimates indicate the size of the discovery is less than 0.1 million Sm3 of recoverable oil equivalent. Drilling was carried out by harsh-environment semisub Transocean Norge, which will next drill wildcat well 6306/3-2 S in ConocoPhillips-operated licence 935 in the Norwegian Sea. The rig is currently contracted to the operator on a firm period extending into September 2022 and there are options attached to the contract. 

JV partner Horizon Oil informed that drilling operations are continuing at the CNOOC-operated WZ12-8E field in Block 22/12 off China, with drilling underway on the WZ12-8E A5 development well. Following completion of the well, the final well in the development drilling campaign (WZ12-8E A6) will be drilled. The joint venture will then review the overall field performance before considering further development drilling. Horizon added that an exploration well (WZ12-8E A8) is expected to follow the A5 and A6 wells and further details will be provided once final approvals have been secured. Jackup COSLStrike is undertaking drilling operations on the campaign. Also, with respect to operations in the wider Block 22/12 permit, a number of exploration and appraisal wells, infill drilling targets and well workovers are at the final planning stage, as per Horizon.  

Demand

Empyrean Energy decided to enter the second phase of exploration drilling at the Topaz prospect, in the company-operated Block 29/11 off China. The decision was based on post-drill technical evaluation of the company’s Jade prospect, and CNOOC-assisted migration pathways assessment. Last month, Empyrean had informed that as per the production sharing contract in place with CNOOC, it must elect to enter the second phase of exploration period by 12 June 2022, and commit to drill the Topaz prospect before 12 June 2024. At the time, Empyrean said that it was considering alternatives to fund the Topaz drilling and preparing a work program for planned drilling  in the first half of 2023.

Santos is expected to drill the Yoorn-1 exploration well in the Carnarvon Basin off Western Australia during Q4 2022. This was informed by Bounty Oil and Gas, a JV partner in the neighboring Cerberus Permits. Upstream quoted a Santos spokesperson confirming that the well would be drilled using the jackup Noble Tom Prosser, which is on a firm contract with Santos until November. The contract also has options attached extending to Q2 2023. 

Mobilisation

6th gen drillship Polaris left Sri Lanka and understood to be underway to Malaysia for reactivation, contract preparation and upgrades, prior to commencement of a 9-month contract with ONGC off India during Q4 2022. Owner Aquadrill had earlier informed that upgrades would include equipping the rig with the piping required for future use of a Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) system.

Jackup Icon Caren is scheduled to move to ConocoPhillips-operated Block WL4-00, off Sarawak, Malaysia during the period 16th – 20th June 2022. The rig is expected to drill three exploration wells over a duration of approx. 75 days. Drilling for the campaign was supposed to be carried out by Velesto jackup Naga 7 last year, but ConocoPhillips had to postpone plans as the rig sank after suffering a punch-through before commencing operations. The contract was then awarded to Icon Offshore earlier this year for commencement in Q2 2022.

Jackup Shelf Drilling Scepter commenced mobilisation to Vietnam where it will start a development drilling engagement with Cuu Long Joint Operating Company (CLJOC). The contract is expected to start in late June, with the work running into September 2022.

Jackup Key Singapore arrived on location to commence an engagement with Cairn Oil & Gas off India. The firm period for the contract runs into May 2023 and there are understood to be options attached.

Drillship Stena Forth is en-route to Canada to drill ExxonMobil’s Hampden exploration well in the Flemish Pass Basin offshore Newfoundland. Drilling is expected to commence during July and following conclusion of the engagement, the rig is scheduled to return to East Mediterranean to undertake drilling campaigns for Chevron off Egypt and Cyprus.  

Rig Sales / Charter

Saipem entered an agreement with Ocean Challenger, the asset management company of CIMC, to contract a 400 feet jackup for deployment in the Middle East. The rig would be taken to the Middle East by August for modifications, following which it will commence a contract with Saudi Aramco by end 2022. The rig was formerly known as Gulf Driller VII and will be renamed to Perro Negro 11. Equipped with MH Wirth drilling equipment, the rig is 70m long and 76m wide, and has maximum operational water depth of 120m.

ADNOC Drilling entered an agreement with Aban Offshore for the purchase of jackup Deep Driller 8 for $28 million. As per Aban, the agreement was entered into on 10th June and the expected date for completion of sale is 31st July. The sale is related to an earlier announcement from Aban informing about its Board approval for sale of five jackups—Deep Driller 2, Deep Driller 4, Deep Driller 5, Deep Driller 6 and Deep Driller 8. This was followed by an announcement informing the sale of Deep Driller 2, Deep Driller 4, Deep Driller 5, and Deep Driller 6 to ADES. Deep Driller 8 last worked for ONGC off India in 2021, following which it was stacked in Sri Lanka.

Other News

BP reached an agreement to acquire Cenovus Energy’s 35% stake in the undeveloped Bay du Nord project offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The non-operated stake in the project will expand BP’s portfolio offshore Canada, where the company holds an interest in six exploration licenses offshore Eastern Newfoundland region. The transaction is expected to close in 2022, subject to regulatory approvals.

Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced  launch of Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2022, encompassing the predefined areas with blocks in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. Since APA 2021, the predefined areas (APA acreage) have been expanded by 28 blocks in the Barents Sea. The awards are expected to be made during Q1 of 2023. 

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Esgian