Drilling & Completion News

Ensco takes delivery of newbuild jackup, ultra-deepwater drillship

Ensco has taken delivery of ENSCO 120, the first in its series of three ultra-premium, harsh-environment jackups. The rig is contracted to work for Nexen in the North Sea beginning in Q4 2013; dayrate is approximately $230,000, plus cost adjustments.

ENSCO 120 was constructed at Keppel FELS in Singapore. In yard trials, the rig set a shipyard record when it was jacked up to 539 ft on its 540-ft legs. The rig also successfully hoisted a 2.5-million-lb hookload at its full cantilever extension.

The jackup is an enhanced version of the KFELS Super A design. Capable of operating in water depths up to 400 ft, ENSCO 120 Series rigs are designed for large multi-well platform programs, ultra-deep gas programs or ultra-long-reach wells up to 40,000-ft total drilling depth.

The design increases the rig’s area of operability in the Central North Sea and other harsh-environment regions.

Separately, the ENSCO DS-7, an ultra-deepwater drillship, was delivered from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea. The drillship is contracted to Total for work in Angola for three years beginning Q4 2013; initial dayrate is in the mid-$610,000s.

ENSCO DS-7 is the third Ensco rig contracted to Total and will be the fourth Ensco rig working in West Africa. The drillship is equipped with a six-ram 15,000-psi BOP, 2.5 million-lb hookload on main rotary, 6,000-bbl active and 7,400-bbl reserve dual-fluid systems and accommodations for up to 200 people.

The DS-7 is the fifth of eight rigs in the Ensco DP3 drillship series, which can be modified to drill and complete wells in water depths up to 12,000 ft.

Ocean Rig orders 7th-genultra-deepwater drillship

Ocean Rig has signed a contract to construct a seventh-generation ultra-deepwater drillship at Samsung Heavy Industries. The rig is a sister ship to the three drillships – Ocean Rig Skyros, Ocean Rig Athena and Ocean Rig Apollo – under construction at Samsung and is scheduled to be delivered in December 2015.

The newbuild will be capable of drilling in 12,000 ft of water and is based on the Saipem 10000 design, with dual-derrick enhancements and DP Class 3 dynamic positioning.

Drill stem test completedon BG field in Tanzania

BG Group has completed a drill stem test in the Pweza gas field offshore southern Tanzania. The Pweza-3 test, the first done in Block 4, flowed at a maximum 57 million standard cu ft of gas per day, constrained by equipment.

The test demonstrated that development wells could flow at significantly higher rates and that the Pweza reservoir is potentially the most prolific in BG Group’s Tanzania portfolio.

Jackup order targets growing Mexican market

Central Panuco of Mexico, a subsidiary of Perforadora Central, has ordered a KFELS B Class jackup from Keppel AmFELS for US $240 million, including owner-furnished equipment.

Scheduled for delivery in Q4 2015, the jackup is intended for operations offshore Mexico. The rig will be able to operate in water depths up to 400 ft (122 meters) and drill to depths of 30,000 ft (9,144 meters). With this latest contract, 13 KFELS B Class jackup rigs have been ordered for the Mexican market since 2010.

Separately, Keppel FELS has also secured a contract from an affiliate of Clearwater Capital Partners to build a pair of jackups of the same design. The total cost of the project is approximately US $440 million, which also includes owner-furnished equipment and project management fees. The rigs are scheduled to be completed in Q4 2015 and Q1 2016.

 Vantage receives Letter of Intent for Sapphire Driller

Vantage Drilling’s Sapphire Driller jackup has received a Letter of Intent for an 18-month contract, plus options, to work in West Africa. This contract will replace the previously announced two-year Letter of Award.

BP drills Nile Delta’s deepest well, discovers gas

BP Egypt has made a significant gas discovery in the East Nile Delta. The company believes the deepwater Salamat exploration well is the deepest well drilled in the Nile Delta. Maersk Drilling’s sixth-generation semisubmersible Maersk Discoverer was used to drill the well in a water depth of 2,129 ft (649 meters), reaching TD around 22,966 ft (7,000 meters).

The wireline logs, fluid samples and pressure data confirmed the presence of gas and condensate.

BC-10 2nd phase begins production offshore Brazil

Shell and its partners Petrobras and ONGC have begun production from the second development phase of the Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project, located off Brazil’s southeast coast. The BC-10 project is made up of several subsea fields that are tied back to an FPSO, the Espírito Santo.

Huisman to deliver well intervention system for Helix Q7000

Huisman has secured a contract from Helix Energy Solutions Group for the delivery of a well intervention system onboard Helix’s newbuild well intervention semi, the Q7000. The system, which is based on Huisman’s multipurpose tower design, will be built at the Huisman production facility in China. The fully integrated 800-metric-ton well intervention system will be capable of handling the intervention stack and high-pressure riser.

Appraisal, exploration successes for Noble Energy

Noble Energy’s A-2 appraisal well drilled offshore the Republic of Cyprus has encountered approximately 120 ft (37 meters) of net natural gas pay within the targeted Miocene-aged sand intervals. The Cyprus A-2 well was drilled to 18,865 ft (5,750 meters) TD in 5,575 ft (1,699 meters) of water. In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Noble Energy also made a gas discovery at the Troubadour exploration prospect. The well, located in Noble’s Big Bend/Troubadour “Rio Grande” area, is in 7,273 ft (2,217 meters) of water on Mississippi Canyon Block 699 and was drilled to 19,510 ft (5,946 meters) TD.

 Maersk orders new jackup for BP Norway

Maersk Drilling has ordered a new ultra-harsh-environment jackup, XL Enhanced 4, to be built at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea. The rig is scheduled for delivery in mid-2016. The total project cost is estimated at US $650 million, including a turnkey contract with the yard, owner-furnished equipment, project management and capitalized interest. The contract with DSME includes priced options for construction of up to two additional units, with deliveries in 2016/2017.

The rig order is backed by a five-year contract with BP Norway for plug and abandonment work on the Valhall field in the Norwegian North Sea. The estimated value of the contract for the firm five-year period is US $812 million, including mobilization from South Korea to Norway. BP Norway has options to extend the contract up to a total duration of 10 years. The rig will have the capability to be electrically powered from shore via the Valhall complex, which the companies believe could have significant environmental benefits.

Statoil strikes oil, gas in offshore discoveries

Statoil Canada and co-venturer Husky Energy have discovered between 300 million and 600 million bbls of recoverable oil in the Bay du Nord, located approximately 311 miles (500 km) northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. A sidetrack well has been completed and confirms a high-impact discovery. The Bay du Nord well encountered light oil (API 34°) and excellent Jurassic reservoirs with high porosity and high permeability. Bay du Nord is Statoil’s third discovery in the Flemish Pass Basin and was drilled by Seadrill’s West Aquarius semi.

In the Svale North prospect in the Norwegian Sea, Statoil made an oil discovery approximately 6 miles (9 km) northeast of the Norne field. Exploration well 6608/10-15, drilled by Songa Offshore’s Songa Trym semi, has proven a 148-ft (45-meter) oil column in the Åre formation and a 148-ft (45-meter) oil column in the Melke formation. The preliminary estimated volume of the discovery is in the range of 6 million to 19 million bbls of recoverable oil.

Seadrill’s West Hercules semisubmersible also has made a discovery for Statoil and its partners Eni Norge and Petoro in the Iskrystall prospect in PL608 in the Barents Sea. Well 7219/8-2 has proved an approximately 656-ft (200-meter) gas column. Statoil estimates the volumes in Iskrystall to be between 6 million and 25 million bbls of oil equivalent.

Tullow makes fourth consecutive wildcat discovery in Kenya

Tullow Oil’s Ekales-1 wildcat, located in Block 13T in northern Kenya, has made an oil discovery. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluid indicate a potential net oil pay in the Auwerwer and Upper Lokone sandstone reservoirs of between 197 and 328 ft (60 and 100 meters).

This is the fourth consecutive wildcat discovery, in the first oil basin opened in northern Kenya, since drilling commenced in 2012.