Drilling & Completion News
West Tellus, West Jupiter win work offshore Brazil
Seadrill’s West Tellus and West Jupiter ultra-deepwater drillships were each recently awarded a 1,095-day contract by Petrobras to operate offshore Brazil. Both work programs are expected to commence in Q1 2026.
The West Tellus contract will contribute approximately $498 million to Seadrill’s backlog, including additional services and excluding a $41 million mobilization fee. The program, in which the rig will work in the Sépia and Atapu fields in the Santos Basin, includes an optional period of up to 305 days.
The West Jupiter contract will contribute approximately $493 million to Seadrill’s backlog, including additional services and excluding a mobilization fee of $31.5 million.
“These fixtures provide approximately $1 billion of additional backlog and a meaningful uplift to earnings and free cash flow beginning in 2026,” said President and CEO Simon Johnson.
Petrobras awards work to Constellation semi, drillship
Constellation Oil Services announced the extension of Petrobras’ current contract for the Atlantic Star semisubmersible rig for a period of up to 301 days. This extension will increase the original contract value by up to $61 million and confirms the continuity of operations that began in 2021.
In recent years, the unit has primarily been used for well decommissioning activities, focused on the Congro, Malhado and Albacora fields in water depths ranging from 270 to 540 m in the Campos Basin. During the extension period, the rig is expected to continue performing the same type of services.
Separately, Constellation recently also announced the award of a new contract from Petrobras for the Amaralina Star. The ultra-deepwater drillship will operate offshore Brazil, including in remote areas of frontier exploration, such as the Equatorial Margin and Pelotas Basin.
The agreement totals approximately $528 million, which includes approximately $39 million for mobilization and additional integrated services requested by Petrobras. The Amaralina Star will operate under this new contract for a firm period of three years, commencing in Q1 2026, with an option for contract extension up to an additional 315 days.
The Amaralina Star is currently operating for Petrobras in the Roncador field and will complete its term in Q4 2025. Afterwards, it will undergo preparations for the new contract with adequacies, hull cleaning and class inspections of the vessel.
Deepsea Bollsta to move back to Norway from Namibia
Equinor awarded a two-year firm contract to Northern Ocean Wind to employ the Deepsea Bollsta semi on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The contract value for the firm period is approximately $335 million, and startup is planned for the later part of 2025. The contract also includes five one-year options.
The Deepsea Bollsta is currently in Africa and has been drilling in Namibia, but it has a previous track record of operating in Norway.
The Deepsea Bollsta will be operated by Odfjell Drilling. It currently operates three rigs for Equinor – Deepsea Aberdeen, Deepsea Atlantic and Deepsea Stavanger.
Exploration success for Murphy Oil in Cuu Long Basin offshore Vietnam
A subsidiary of Murphy Oil has drilled an oil discovery at the Hai Su Vang-1X exploration well in Block 15-2/17 in the Cuu Long Basin, located 40 miles offshore Vietnam. The well was drilled to a total depth of 13,124 ft in 149 ft of water. Additional evaluation is ongoing, and future appraisal drilling will be conducted.
The find intersected 110 m of net oil pay across two reservoir zones, aligning with Murphy’s pre-drill estimates of 170 million barrels of oil equivalent of gross resources.
Even though actual commercially recoverable volumes tend to be significantly lower than the gross resource number, Hai Su Vang-1X is likely the largest oil find in the Cuu Long basin for over a decade, according to Wood Mackenzie. This is particularly important given the decline in Vietnam’s oil production, said Golak Patnaik, Principal Analyst, Asia Pacific Upstream at Wood Mackenzie. That production reached its peak at 390,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2004 and has since declined to around 138,000 bpd.
Mr Patnaik said development of this discovery could be expedited given that Murphy’s existing Lac Da Vang field, located in the adjacent Block 15-1/05, is under development and expected to be on stream by mid-2026.
Murphy will next spud the Lac Da Hong-1 exploration well on an adjacent prospect to Lac Da Vang, also within block 15-1/05.
New gas condensate resources found in Harald field in Danish North Sea
The Harald East Middle Jurassic nearby exploration well (HEMJ-1X) has discovered additional gas condensate resources in the Harald field in the Danish North Sea, TotalEnergies announced.
Located in shallow waters 250 km off the west coast of Denmark, the HEMJ-1X well was drilled in the eastern part of the Harald field and encountered 48 m of net gas condensate pay. The well was to be immediately connected to the Harald platform to produce through the existing Harald and Tyra facilities.
