D&C News

Pride Venezuela to drill offshore Brazil

Pride International has been awarded a one-year contract by OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA for the mid-water semisubmersible Pride Venezuela. The contract, for drilling services offshore Brazil, is expected to commence in Q3 2010. The rig is a conventionally moored unit capable of operating in water depths up to 1,500 ft.

Rowan receives 1st of 4 EXL jackup on time

Keppel AmFELS delivered the first of four EXL rigs to Rowan Drilling Company on 4 May, safely, on time and within budget.

The rig, christened Rowan EXL I at the yard, has a 10-month contract with McMoRan Exploration Company in the Gulf of Mexico.

Keppel AmFELS is constructing three similar newbuild jackups for Rowan. The construction of these rigs is progressing within schedule and budget.

Built as an enhancement of the LeTourneau Super 116E design, the EXL rigs use state-of-the-art technology to drill high-pressure, high-temperature and extended-reach wells. They are capable of operating in up to 350 ft of water and drilling to a depth of 35,000 ft.

Reliance reports 7th oil discovery on Cambay block

Reliance Industries has reported its seventh oil discovery in the CB-ONN-2003/1 (CB 10 A&B) block in the Cambay basin, about 130 km from Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Well CB10A-N1 was drilled to a total depth of 1,579 m in Part A of the block. The  hydrocarbon-bearing zone was identified from 1,388 m to 1,403 m in the Miocene Basal Sand of the Babaguru formation. The well flowed at a rate of 410 bbl/day of oil through a 6-mm bean, with a flowing tubing head pressure of 290 psia.

Reliance hopes that recent discoveries on this block will open more oil pool areas and lead to better hydrocarbon potential. The block was awarded to Reliance under the government’s NELP-V bidding round.

Xtreme Coil receives contracts for 8 rigs to drill in Rockies

Xtreme Coil Drilling will provide eight rigs for current and new projects in Colorado and Wyoming for two E&P companies. One contract encompasses 7,450 rig days and involves renewal terms for three rigs currently operating in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, plus four other rigs that should be deployed over the next six months to the Rocky Mountain region. The first of these four additional rigs should begin drilling by June 2010.

The eighth rig, an XTC 200DT located in Wyoming and contracted to another E&P company, commenced drilling in May under terms of a new multi-well project that includes both new and re-entry wells.

Xtreme Coil’s three rigs operating in the Rocky Mountain region drilled more than 1.8 million ft during 2009. The record well with these three rigs is 52.5 hrs from the spudding of an 8,500-ft well to the spudding of the next well.

Apache’s Samaa-1X in Egypt tests 44 million cu ft/day of gas

Apache’s second discovery of the year in Egypt’s Matruh Basin, the Samaa-1X, has tested 44 million cu ft/day of natural gas and 2,910 bbl of condensate/day from two zones. The nearby Opera-1X discovery, drilled earlier in 2010, test-flowed 890 bbl/day of oil from the Cretaceous-age Alam El Buieb (AEB-3D) formation.

Samaa-1X is located in the Matruh Concession, approximately 1.2 miles (2 km) northwest of the Matruh field and 3.7 miles (6 km) southeast of the 2008 Maggie-1X discovery. The latest discovery tested 21 million cu ft/day and 913 bbl/day of condensate from the Lower Safa and 23 million cu ft/day and 1,997 bbl/day of condensate from the Upper Safa.

The Matruh Concession, acquired through a farm-out from Shell in 2001, currently produces 130 million cu ft/day of gas and 18,000 bbl/day of oil from 16 wells. The concession has yielded 119 billion cu ft of gas and 11.2 million bbl of oil since Apache established production on the concession in 2003.

Apache is planning to drill 11 additional exploration wells and two appraisal wells in the Matruh Basin during 2010. Apache continues to evaluate 3-D seismic surveys, including a recently completed 155-sq-mile (400-sq km) survey, to identify additional exploration opportunities in the basin.

KCA DEUTAG’s T-45 to drill in Netherlands

TAQA Energy, the Dutch subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, has awarded a contract to KCA DEUTAG for its heavy land drilling rig T-45 to drill in the Netherlands. Using the rig’s skidding capabilities, the wells are expected to be batch-drilled in clusters of two to three.

South China Sea well yields encouraging results for Husky

Husky Energy subsidiary Husky Oil China has completed drilling and testing of the first appraisal well at the Liuhua 29-1 discovery on Block 29/26 in the South China Sea with encouraging results. Seadrill’s West Hercules semi drilled the Liuhua 29-1-2 well to a TVD of 2,930 m below sea level. The well was drilled and tested in a water depth of 765 m on the Liuhua 29-1 field, which was discovered in January 2010 in the South China Sea.

According to Husky president/CEO John Lau, this first appraisal well tested natural gas at an equipment-restricted rate of 55 million cu ft/day, with indications that the well’s future deliverability could be 60 million to 70 million cu ft/day. The West Hercules drilling rig has commenced the drilling of another exploration well, Liwan 5-2-1, in Block 29/26 prior to returning to Liuhua 29-1 to drill a second appraisal well later in the year.

Keppel completes Maersk Deliverer early

Keppel FELS has delivered the Maersk Deliverer, Maersk Drilling’s third and final unit in this series of deepwater semis, 43 days ahead of schedule. The rigs in this series are capable of drilling 30,000-ft wells and operating at a water depth of 10,000 ft. “These rigs are probably the most outstanding and complex deepwater rigs ever built. A number of innovative features have been implemented in the design,” Maersk CEO Claus Hemmingsen said. The Maersk Deliverer is first scheduled to drill offshore Mauritania for Dana Petroleum under a 90-day contract.

Eni appraises Jangkrik gas discovery

Eni has appraised the Jangkrik gas discovery offshore Indonesia, in the Muara Bakau PSC, Kutei Basin, East Kalimantan. The Jangkrik-2 appraisal well is located approximately 70 km from the coast of Indonesia and has been drilled to 2,449 m in 425 m of water depth. The well encountered more than 80 m of net gas pay.

This result significantly increases the field estimate of recoverable resources with respect to the discovery well. During the Jangkrik 2 production test, the well produced high-quality gas at a tubing-constrained rate of 17.5 million standard cu ft/day.

Eni and its partner, GDF Suez, plan to proceed quickly with the assessment of the technical and commercial viability of a fast-track development of the gas of the Jangkrik field that will be routed to the Bontang LNG plant.