Rig Briefs: Maersk jackup wins contract, Transocean drillship sets record offshore India

Maersk Resolve receives DONG Energy contract for Danish North Sea

Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract from DONG Energy for the Maersk Resolve jackup for drilling operations in the Danish North Sea. The contract is expected to commence next month in direct continuation of its current contract in the UK. The new contract is expected to last nine months until June 2014, when the rig will undergo a planned yard stay and then commence another five-well contract with DONG Energy that is expected to last approximately two years. The estimated value of the new nine-month contract is US $58 million.

“Maersk Resolve will now work for DONG Energy throughout the third quarter of 2016, and we look forward to co-create value with DONG Energy on their many interesting prospects, including the high profile Hejre field development, which requires the drilling of a number of deep and complicated high-pressure, high-temperature wells. With its high-tech equipment, the Maersk Resolve is ideally suited to meet these demands,” Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO of Maersk Drilling and a member of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group Executive Board, said.

The Maersk Resolve is the third in a series of four high-efficiency 350-ft jackups in Maersk Drilling’s fleet. Since its delivery in 2009, the rig has been employed in the Danish and UK North Sea.

Transocean drillship sets water-depth record with ONGC well

ONGC and Transocean have announced that the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 ultra-deepwater drillship has set another world record for the deepest water depth by an offshore drilling rig. The rig spudded well #1-D-1 in 10,411 ft (3,174 meters) of water on 18 June; it is located in exploratory block KG-DWN-2005/1 off the eastern coast of India. This depth surpasses the previous record of 10,385 ft (3,165 meters) set earlier this year by the same rig.

Since 2004, ONGC has drilled more than 100 deepwater well, approximately 41 of them in more than 5,000 ft of water. Well # 1-D-1 is the third well in more than 10,000 ft of water.

Gumusut-Kakap semi-FPS undergoes installation in Malaysian deepwater

Sabah Shell Petroleum has begun the installation of a semisubmersible floating production system (FPS) on Malaysia’s deepwater Gumusut-Kakap field, which is the country’s second deepwater development after the Kikeh oil field, also offshore Sabah. According to the company, this semi-FPS is the largest of its kind in the world to have been fully built and integrated on land. It left the Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE) yard in Pasir Gudang, Johor, on 13 May and sailed to Desaru waters, where a sea trial and an inclination test were completed on 24 May. The semi-FPS then made a 1,480-km journey to arrive at the field on 12 June.

Once installed, the semi-FPS is expected to be the largest offshore operating facility in Asia. Sabah Shell operates the field in partnership with PETRONAS Carigali, ConocoPhilips Sabah and Murphy Sabah Oil Co.

“This project and its achievement is attributed to the collaborative effort of PETRONAS, Shell, Murphy, ConocoPhilips, as well as PETRONAS Carigali, supported by the capability and technical know-how of MISC Bhd and MMHE,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Shamsul Azhar Abbas, president & group CEO of PETRONAS. MISC held the contract for the project’s engineering, procurement and construction.

The semi-FPS project was geared toward bringing in not only direct foreign investment but also transfer of technology to Malaysia in line with PETRONAS’ objectives to develop local capability and capacity and promote Malaysia as a regional deepwater development hub.

The semi-FPS has been anchored in a water depth of approximately 1,200 meters and will initially service seven subsea manifolds in the Gumusut-Kakap field. It was designed to remain on station in the field for 30 years and could act as a hub for other potential subsea facilities.

The Gumusut-Kakap field’s full development system is made up of 19 subsea wells that are linked to a permanent structure of the semi-FPS and an oil export pipeline that will bring crude oil to the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal in Kimanis, Sabah. The system has the design capacity to process up to 150,000 bbl of oil equivalent per day.