Drilling & Completion News
Parden Holding orders Keppel FELS jackup
Uruguay-based Parden Holding has awarded a contract to Keppel FELS to build a jackup for US $206 million. Scheduled for delivery in Q4 2015, the jackup is intended for operations offshore Mexico. It will be built to the KFELS B-Class design and customized to operator requirements. It will be able to operate in water depths up to 400 ft and drill to depths of 30,000 ft, with accommodation for up to 150 personnel.
Keppel FELS also recently delivered La Santa Maria, another KFELS B-class jackup, to Constructora y Perforadora LATINA (CP LATINA), a private Mexican energy company. The rig, which will be chartered to PEMEX for deployment offshore Mexico, is the first of two high-specification jackups that the Singapore yard is building for CP LATINA. The second rig is on schedule to be delivered in Q4 this year.
Ocean Rig Skyros to begin Total contract in October
Ocean Rig has signed a definitive agreement with Total E&P Angola for its ultra-deepwater drillship Ocean Rig Skyros. The contract is for five wells or a minimum of 275 days for operations offshore West Africa and is expected to commence upon delivery from the shipyard in October. Further, a letter of award was received for the Ocean Rig Skyros for a separate six-year contract, also offshore Africa.
Eni makes oil and gas discovery offshore Congo
Eni has made an oil and gas discovery in the Nene’ Marine exploration prospect in the Marine XII Block offshore Congo, approximately 11 miles (17 km) from shoreline. The volume of the discovery proved with the two wells so far is estimated at approximately 600 million bbls of oil and 700 Bcf of gas.
The discovery was made through the well Nene’ Marine 1, which has been drilled in 79 ft (24 meters) of water to a depth of 9,885 ft (3,013 meters). The well encountered a significant wet gas and light oil accumulation in the pre-saline clastic sequence of Lower Cretaceous age. The Nene’ Marine 2 well was drilled 1.24 miles (2 km) away from the discovery well and confirmed the significant hydrocarbon accumulation and the continuity of the reservoir. During production tests, both the wells flowed at a commercial rates oil at 37° API gravity.
Seadrill newbuild headed to China
Seadrill has signed a contract with Chevron China Energy Co for the newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship West Tellus. The contract will commence in China immediately upon shipyard delivery in September and thereafter will relocate to Liberia. The agreement is for a period of 180 days with revenue potential of approximately US $150 million, inclusive of bonus potential and mobilization.
Petrobras enters final phase in Sete Brasil’s 21-rig order
Petrobras has signed contracts with Sete Brasil, Odebrecht and Etesco to charter and operate nine drillships. They are to be built in Brazil with between 55% to 65% of Brazilian goods and services content. Petrobras will charter the rigs for 15 years. This is the final phase in the operator’s process to order 21 rigs from Sete Brasil.
Delivery of the nine drillships is scheduled to commence in 2016, and they will be used mainly for drilling wells in the Santos Basin pre-salt region, including Rights Transfer areas.
Petrobras also has confirmed the presence of oil in well 3-SPS-101 (3-BRSA-1179-SPS), in the Carioca Discovery Evaluation Plan area, block BM-S-9, Santos Basin pre-salt. The well, informally known as Iguaçu Mirim, is located 188 miles (303 km) off the coast of the state of São Paulo, 21 miles (34 km) south of the discovery well (1-SPS-50 – Carioca) at a water depth of 7,080 ft (2,158 meters).
The discovery was confirmed through oil samples of approximately 20° API, taken via cable test from pre-salt carbonate reservoirs starting at a depth of 15,912 ft (4,850 meters).
Blackford Dolphin wins 1-well contracts for North Sea
Dolphin Drilling has secured two contracts that will take its Blackford Dolphin semi into the North Sea market. The first contract with MPX North Sea will be in the UK sector of the North Sea while the second contract with Capricorn Energy will take place offshore Ireland. Both contracts are for one well each and are expected to last a total of approximately five months.
The high-specification deepwater drilling rig, a rebuild investment of approximately $550 million, can drill in up to 7,000 ft (2,133 meters) of water and drill wells to 30,000 ft (9,144 meters). It will begin work on the first well in Q1 2014 following mobilization from Brazil, where it has been operating for most of the past three years, and completion of its five-year class survey. The combined estimated contract value of the agreements is approximately US $67 million.
Dolphin Drilling expects to further its expansion later this year when the Bolette Dolphin newbuild drillship enters service for Anadarko.
Rowan awarded contract for ultra-deepwater drillship
Rowan Companies has entered a three-year contract with Cobalt International Energy for the Rowan Reliance, an ultra-deepwater drillships under construction at the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) yard in Ulsan, South Korea. The drillship is expected to operate in the US Gulf of Mexico.
The Rowan Reliance is scheduled to be delivered from HHI at the end of October 2014, with the contract commencing in late January 2015 following mobilization. The effective dayrate will be US $602,000, including mobilization revenues, and adds US $660 million to revenue backlog.
Maersk Resolve continues work for DONG Energy
Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract from DONG Energy for the Maersk Resolve jackup for drilling operations in the Danish North Sea. The contract was expected to commence in August in continuation of its current contract in the UK. The new contract with DONG Energy is expected to last nine months until June 2014, when the rig will commence a yard stay, then another five-well firm contract with DONG Energy that’s expected to last two years.
Statoil takes over operatorship in eastern Eagle Ford
Statoil has assumed operatorship for all activities in the eastern part of its Eagle Ford asset in Texas.
The company now has operational activities in all of its onshore assets – Bakken, Marcellus and Eagle Ford, Torstein Hole, senior vice president for US onshore, said. Statoil entered the Eagle Ford shale in 2010 through a 50/50 joint venture with Talisman Energy USA.
Statoil holds approximately 73,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford. Its share of production stands at 20,200 bbls of oil equivalent per day from approximately 300 producing wells.
Tullow Oil discovers gas offshore Mozambique
Tullow Oil’s Cachalote-1 exploration well offshore Mozambique has discovered a gas-bearing reservoir in an Upper Cretaceous deepwater channel system. This was the first deepwater exploration well drilled in Area 2 and targeted several geological plays associated with Ibo High. Transocean’s Discoverer Americas DP drillship drilled Cachalote-1 to a final depth of 8,120 ft (2,475 meters) in water depths of 2,257 ft (688 meters).
Two new exploration successes for CNOOC in Bohai
CNOOC has made two exploration discoveries in Bohai. The discovery well, Bozhong 8-4-4, in the west slope of Bozhong Sag was drilled and completed at 6,437 ft (1,962 meters) and encountered oil pay zones and gas reservoir with a total thickness of 164 ft (50 meters) and 36 ft (11 meters), respectively. During the test period, the oil production of the well was approximately 660 bbl/day.
Another discovery well, Kenli 10-4-1 in the south slope of Laizhou Bay Sag, was drilled and completed at 7,857 ft (2,395 meters) and encountered oil pay zones with a total thickness of about 148 ft (45 meters). During the test period, oil production of the well was approximately 2,800 bbl/day.
Marathon Oil makes discovery in pre-salt deepwater Gabon
Marathon Oil’s pre-salt Diaman-1B exploration well offshore Gabon has encountered 160 to 180 ft (50 to 55 meters) of hydrocarbons in the deepwater pre-salt. Preliminary analysis suggests the find is natural gas with condensate content. The Diaman-1B well was drilled to TD at 18,323 ft (5,584 meters) in approximately 5,673 ft (1,729 meters) of water in the Diaba License G4-223.
