D&C News

Shell recognizes KCA DEUTAG’s rig T201 in Brunei as 2008 Land Rig of the Year

KCA DEUTAG’s crews on rig T201 working in Brunei have received recognition from Shell as Land Rig of the Year in its worldwide fleet for 2008.

“We have shown that an inherently risky operation can be conducted in a safe manner while still pushing ourselves for consistent top-quartile performance – the best of both worlds,” said Francisco Chacin, T201 rig superintendent for Brunei Shell Petroleum. “Congratulations to all hands on the rig, without exception. This is really something to be proud of.”

Separately, KCA DEUTAG has been awarded a US$50 million land drilling contract from Russian oil and gas operator Arctic Gas Co. The contract, which is for an initial three years with extensions, saw KCA DEUTAG’s rig T505 commence operations in the fourth quarter 2008 in the Severo-Samburgskoye field, in Novy Urengoy, Western Siberia.

Holger Temmen, chief executive of KCA DEUTAG, said, “Russia is a key strategic growth area for our business, and this contract further strengthens our position in that market, where our HR-5000 series of rigs have continued to make in-roads since their introduction in 2006.”

This contract follows another awarded previously, by Burgaz, Gazprom’s drilling subsidiary, for KCA DEUTAG’s rig T500 for a drilling campaign in the Novyi Urengoi field in the Yamburg region of west Siberia.

Anadarko: Well flows nearly 17,000 bbl of crude in drillstem test in deepwater field offshore Ghana.

Anadarko has announced a successful drillstem test (DST) at the Hyedua-2 appraisal well in the deepwater Jubilee field offshore Ghana. The well, located in approximately 4,090 ft of water on the Deepwater Tano License, flowed at a stable rate of 16,750 bbl of 37° API gravity crude oil and approximately 21 million cu ft/day of associated natural gas from a single zone. The flow rate, which was limited by equipment and facilities, indicates future deliverability of more than 20,000 bbl/day.

“Flowing nearly 17,000 barrels of high-quality crude oil per day from a test well is an outstanding success indicative of the world-class potential of this basin,” Anadarko chairman and CEO Jim Hackett said. “The high flow rates and relatively low pressure drawdown of this well demonstrate excellent productivity, and the data confirms we are connected to a large reservoir.”

Hyedua-2 follows the successful Mahogany-3 well on the West Cape Three Points Block. That well encountered high-quality oil pay, confirming the Jubilee field’s potential and expanding the extent of the field by more than three miles to the southeast of the original Mahogany-1 discovery well. It also opened new potential on the block as it encountered oil pay in the secondary exploration objective. This deeper section targeted a previously untested and separate fan at a lower stratigraphic interval.

Once Mahogany-3 operations are complete, the partnership expects to begin drilling the Tweneboa-1 prospect, located on the Deepwater Tano License. The partnership also expects to continue its offshore Ghana E&P program, which includes two additional high-impact exploration wells in the Cretaceous trend at the Teak and Onyina prospects.

ENI gets 6 exploration licenses in Gabon

Eni has acquired six new exploration licenses in Gabon, with an overall surface area of over 8,000 sq km. Two licences, D3 and D4, are in the prolific north Gabonese basin, and the other four (E2, F3, F4 and F7) are in the onshore basin. All licenses have a first explorative phase of four years, renewable for two periods of four and three years respectively. The agreement with the Gabonese government represents an application of the “ENI cooperation model” in the West Africa region, integrating sustainable activity in the territory with hydrocarbon exploration and production.

Crosco rig achieves 1,000 days without LTI

Crosco Integrated Drilling & Well Services has received an outstanding safety performance award from Woodside Energy North Africa. It recognized Crosco Drilling Rig 603 for achieving 1,000 days of operations without a lost-time incident. The milestone was achieved on 30 September 2008 during an ongoing drilling services project in Libya. “Our objective at Crosco is to always operate without incidents,” said Bojan Milkovic, Crosco president and CEO. “We are particularly pleased with the Woodside award since it shows that we are achieving our desired HSE&Q results.”

DONG Energy to explore in Barents Sea

The Norwegian Oil & Energy Ministry has awarded DONG Energy a licence to search for oil and gas in an approximately 600-sq-km block in the Barents Sea, off the coast of Hammerfest in northern Norway. This means that DONG Energy now has six Norwegian licences.

Under the terms of the latest licence, PL518, a 3D-seismic survey will be performed and at least one appraisal well drilled within four years. If the results are positive, a development plan will be made.

Anders Mørland, the director responsible for DONG Energy’s Norwegian E&P activities said: “We are proud of this latest licence. The Barents Sea is known as a region that is not for novices but for companies with proven experience and expertise within exploration activities. Geographically, the concession is favourably located – only 30 km from the Goliath find that ENI and Statoil plans to produce from, and a little northwest of the area is the large Snøhvit gas field, from which the gas is piped to land via a pipeline that runs close to our concession.”

DONG Energy has already started planning for the exploration and hopes to complete seismic investigations as early as summer 2009.

Tullow Oil announces significant discovery in Giraffe-1 exploration well in Uganda

Tullow Oil announced that the Giraffe-1 exploration well, located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 1, has encountered over 38 m of net oil pay within an 89-m gross oil-bearing interval. These results demonstrate Giraffe to be a down-dip extension of the Buffalo discovery, making this the largest discovery in the Lake Albert Rift Basin to date.

The well was drilled 5 km from Buffalo-1 to a total depth of 705 m and has been successfully logged and sampled. The data indicate a net reservoir thickness of 38 m, the largest encountered in the area to date, and excellent reservoir quality in all pay zones with movable oil being recovered to surface.

Interpretation of the well and seismic data indicates that the reservoir sands intersected in the Giraffe-1 well are in communication with those in the Buffalo discovery. An oil-water contact was penetrated and is interpreted as being common to the entire Buffalo-Giraffe structure, with the potential for a single continuous oil column of some 140 m.

Giraffe-1 is the sixth successful test of the Victoria Nile delta play fairway within the Lake Albert Rift Basin and was drilled some 6.5 km south of the crest of the Buffalo-Giraffe structure. This latest result further extends the play fairway and de-risks several adjacent prospects, in Blocks 1 and 2, which are scheduled for drilling in 2009.

The well will now be suspended as a future producer and, on completion of operations, the rig will move to the Tullow-operated Block 2. Drilling operations will recommence in early February with the drilling of the Mputa-5 appraisal well to calibrate recently enhanced seismic data. Thereafter the rig will return to the Block 2 Butiaba campaign.

StatoilHydro starts production from subsea field

The Yttergryta subsea field has started gas production for the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea, eight months after the plan for development and operation was approved. The field has been developed from find to production in about 18 months, and the first part of the subsea production facility was already in place before exploration drilling was started. The company “will start production as soon as possible to help maintain the production flow from the Åsgard field,” according to StatoilHydro.

Virtue I jackup completed for India’s Jindal Drilling

Keppel FELS has completed the jackup Virtue I ahead of schedule for Virtue Drilling, an associate company of India’s Jindal Drilling & Industries. This was accomplished with a record of about 2.1 million manhours worked without incidents.

Virtue I is the second jackup Keppel FELS has completed for Jindal. It has been contracted by ONGC of India for work in the Indian Ocean for five years. The first rig, Discovery I, was delivered in September 2008, 49 days ahead of schedule and without incidents.

Virtue I is capable of operating in water depths of 350 ft and drilling down to 30,000 ft. Keppel’s fully automated high-capacity rack and pinion elevating system and self-positioning fixation system have been incorporated into the design. Over the last five years, Indian drilling contractors have ordered nine KFELS B Class jackup rigs.

Deepwater semi Maersk Developer completed

The Maersk Developer was delivered to Maersk Drilling on 2 January. It is the first in a series of three highly advanced deepwater development semisubmersibles the company has under construction in Singapore. Its initial programme is for Statoil Gulf of Mexico for drilling in the US Gulf of Mexico, with further assignment rights to Woodside Energy. The contract has a duration of four years.