Atwood Beacon to mobilize to Equatorial Guinea for Hess

Atwood Oceanics’ ATWOOD BEACON has been awarded a contract by Hess Equatorial Guinea to drill offshore Equatorial Guinea under a firm program of six wells, estimated to take 240 days to complete, with options to extend the program to drill up to six additional wells. If all options are exercised, the drilling program could be extended for another 240 days.

The contract provides for an operating dayrate for all firm and option wells of $110,000, plus a mobilization fee of $950,000. In anticipation of this contract award, the rig had previously been relocated from India to Singapore, where it is currently loaded on a dry transport vessel for the mobilization to Equatorial Guinea, which will take approximately 30 days.

The total cost to relocate the rig from India to Singapore and then to Equatorial Guinea is estimated to be around $7 million.