Drilling & Completion News

Ensco orders its eighth Samsung DP3 ultra-deepwater drillship

Ensco has ordered an additional DP3 ultra-deepwater drillship based on the Samsung GF12000 hull design. The vessel, ENSCO DS-10, will be the eighth Samsung DP3 drillship in the Ensco fleet. It will be built at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea, with delivery scheduled for Q3 2015. The agreement includes an option for an additional drillship of the same design.

Measuring 755 ft in length and 125 ft in width, the rig will provide a 1,250-ton hoisting system with enhanced offline capability. Like ENSCO DS-8 and ENSCO DS-9, the new unit will have advanced capabilities to meet the demands of ultra-deepwater drilling in water depths up to 12,000 ft and a total vertical drilling depth of 40,000 ft. It will be initially outfitted to work in water depths up to 10,000 ft. ENSCO DS-8 and ENSCO DS-9, also based on the GF12000 hull design, are scheduled for delivery in 2014.

Noble Energy confirms oil at Gunflint in GOM

Noble Energy’s second appraisal well at Gunflint in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has encountered 109 ft (33 meters) of net pay within primary targets. Results of drilling, wireline logs and reservoir data indicated an estimated gross resource range of 65 million to 90 million bbls of oil equivalent in the primary structure.

Ocean Vanguard drills new well at Johan Sverdrup

In the North Sea offshore Norway, Statoil together with PL265 partners Petoro, Det norske Oljeselskap and Lundin Norway have drilled an appraisal well in the Johan Sverdrup field. Diamond Offshore Drilling’s Ocean Vanguard semisubmersible drilled the well. The main wellbore found a gross 269-ft (82-meter) oil column in Jurassic sandstones and demonstrated test production of almost 6,000 bbl/day and exceptional flow properties in the upper part of the reservoir.

Dolphin Drilling unveils new deepwater drillship

Dolphin Drilling unveiled its new 751-ft ultra-deepwater rig, the Bolette Dolphin, in June at the Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. The rig, which remains under construction, will be capable of operating in 12,000 ft of water with a maximum drilling depth of 40,000 ft.

It is designed for efficient deepwater drilling and completion activity and will start work for Anadarko Petroleum later this year under a four-year contract.

KCA Deutag to operate Cat J rigs on NCS

KCA Deutag has been awarded a contract with Statoil for the management, operation and maintenance of two Category J jackups, which will operate on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). The contract is for eight years, with options to extend by four periods of three years, giving potential for the contract to last up to 20 years. The contract value is US $900 million (NOK 5.2 billion) for the

initial period and US $2.2 billion (NOK 12.8 billion) including options. Operations are expected to start in 2016 to 2017.

During the initial engineering and construction phases, a joint Statoil and KCA Deutag team will work alongside Samsung Heavy Industries and National Oilwell Varco at the shipyard.
The new Category J rigs will be able to operate in harsh environments at water depths from 230 to 460 ft (70 to 140 meters) and drill wells with lengths up to 32,800 ft (10,000 meters). Each tailor-made rig will be owned by the Oseberg and Gullfaks licenses and be specifically designed to operate on both surface stack and subsea wells.
The contract adopts a model where the licenses instead of the drilling contractor own the rigs. “The awards will secure vital rig capacity for both licenses at very competitive prices,” Øystein Håland, head of operations West in Statoil, said.

Discovery Offshore takes delivery of harsh-environment jackup 

Hercules Offshore-managed Discovery Offshore has taken delivery of its first KFELS Super A Class jackup from Keppel FELS.

The Discovery Triumph was delivered 46 days ahead of schedule. The ultra-high-specification jackup has been designed for the harsh-environment conditions of the UK North Sea. It is capable of operating in water depths up to 400 ft and drilling to 35,000 ft. It is equipped with pinion overload detection, rack phase difference detection, and brake failure and overload protection devices. The rig has a 2 million-lb hookload system and can accommodate 150 workers.

Premier Oil discovers oil in UK, flows gas in Indonesia

Premier Oil’s Bonneville exploration well and its sidetrack in the UK Central North Sea have discovered oil. The prospect is 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the Burgman discovery on the Catcher license, and the well was drilled to a total depth of 4,481 ft (1,366 meters). The well encountered a gross oil column of 66 vertical ft (20 meters) in the Tay interval with an estimated net pay of 26 ft (8 meters).

Separately in Indonesia, Premier’s Matang gas discovery test on Block A Aceh has flowed gas at 25 million standard cu ft/day. Initial sampling indicates that the gas contains approximately 15% carbon dioxide.

Atwood secures contract for ultra-deepwater drillship

Atwood Oceanics has been awarded a contract for the Atwood Achiever ultra-deepwater drillship by a subsidiary of Kosmos Energy for an exploration program commencing in Morocco.
The Atwood Achiever is a sixth-generation ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned drillship with enhanced offline capabilities and two BOP systems. The drillship is under construction at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea and scheduled for delivery in June 2014.

Polish companies merge to form Exalo Drilling

Five drilling and service companies within the Polish Oil & Gas Co –
PNiG Kraków, PNiG Jasło, PNiG NAFTA, PN “Diament” and ZRG Krosno – have merged to form Exalo Drilling. The new company is based in Pila, with service centers in Kraków, Jaslo, Krosno and Zielona Góra.
“We are now the biggest drilling and service company in our part of Europe. We will be able to win contracts which were out of reach for Polish companies before,” Piotr Truszkowski, president of Exalo Drilling, said.

Songa Mercur secures contract offshore Vietnam

Songa Offshore has secured a contract with Idemitsu Oil & Gas for the use of the Songa Mercur semi for one firm well offshore Vietnam. The contract will commence in direct continuation of the rig’s commitment with eniVietnam, thus keeping the unit busy into 2014. The contract also includes an option for another well that will have to be exercised prior to contract commencement.
The firm part of the contract has a minimum estimated duration of 80 days, with aggregate revenue of approximately US $21 million. The duration could be extended to approximately 140 days. The Songa Venus also recently secured a contract extension with Mubadala Petroleum to cover an additional two firm wells and two optional wells in Vietnam under the current contract terms and conditions.The two additional wells have a total estimated duration of 80 days and revenue of approximately US $19 million.

RIL, BP and NIKO discover gas in deepwater India

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and its partners BP and NIKO have discovered gas and condensate in the KG D6 block off the eastern coast of India.
The KGD6-MJ1 well was drilled in a water depth of 3,360 ft (1,024 meters) and to a total depth of 14,793 ft (4,509 meters) to explore the potential of a Mesozoic Synrift Clastic reservoir lying more than 6,562 ft (2,000 meters) below the already producing reservoirs in the D1-D3 gas fields.
In the drill stem test, the well flowed 30.6 million standard cu ft/day and liquid rate of 2,121 bbl/day with a flowing bottomhole pressure of 8,461 psi.

Eni makes gas discovery onshore Pakistan 

Eni has discovered gas in the Sukhpur Block in the Kirthar Foldbelt onshore Pakistan, 168 miles (270 km) north of Karachi in the Sindh Province.
The Lundali-1 NFW exploratory well, which led to the discovery, was drilled to a total depth of 8,727 ft (2,660 meters) and encountered gas-bearing sands in the Paleocene sequence. During production testing, the well produced gas flowing up to a rate of 33 million standard cu ft/day. The discovery will be commercialized through an early production scheme, which will result in first gas only three years after the award of the block.

CNOOC starts production from Weizhou 6-12 oilfield

China National Offshore Oil Corp’s (CNOOC) Weizhou 6-12 oilfield recently commenced production in the Beibu Gulf Basin in the South China Sea. The field is in an average water depth of 95 ft (29 meters). The project has 10 producing wells and is expected to hit its peak production this year. CNOOC did not announced production rates.

Pre-salt Lula Nordeste field on commercial production

Petrobras’ FPSO Cidade de Paraty recently went onstream to begin commercial production from the pre-salt Lula Nordeste field in the Santos Basin. Cidade de Paraty is anchored in a water depth of 6,955 ft (2,120 meters), 186 miles (300 km) off the coast, and has the capacity to process up to 120,000 bbl/day of oil and 5 million cu meters/day of gas. 7-LL-11-RJS, the first well to be connected to the platform, has the potential to produce 25,000 bbl/day.