Drilling & Completion News
Xtreme drilling awards equipment upgrade contract for three 850XE land rigs
Bentec and CAN Global USA have reached an agreement with Xtreme Drilling Corp to supply major drilling components for the upgrade of three of Xtreme’s new 850XE land rigs. These 1,800-hp AC rigs were built for pad drilling and will commence operations later this year.
The contract includes the supply of three Bentec equipment packages, each of which will include a 500-ton AC top drive, a remote-controlled iron roughneck and an offline stand-builder. The agreement with CAN Global covers the sale and service of all Bentec drilling rig components in the US market. The product range includes top drives, mud pumps, drawworks, iron roughnecks and pipe-handling solutions, as well as the main electrical drilling and control systems, such as power control rooms, VFD drives and various control solutions.
ExxonMobil awards contract extension for Maersk Viking
Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract extension for the ultra-deepwater drillship Maersk Viking by ExxonMobil. The estimated value of the contract extension is $22.5 million, with a duration of 150 days.
The Maersk Viking has been operating for ExxonMobil on the Julia field in the US Gulf of Mexico since its delivery from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in 2014. The original contract was scheduled to end in July 2017. With the extension, Maersk Viking will now be in operation for ExxonMobil until December 2017.
Halliburton commences drilling in Vostochno-Taimyrsk
Halliburton launched drilling operations in the Zhuravlinaya area of the Vostochno-Taimyrsky license block, onshore Russia, for LUKOIL in early April.
The project, using Eriell Group’s ZJ-70DBS rig, involves Halliburton constructing a 5,500-m exploration well, in addition to delivering an integrated service package, which includes directional drilling, drill bits, drilling fluids, well cementing and other services. A project management team with both Halliburton and LUKOIL members will supervise the project. The well is expected to be completed in approximately one year.
BP makes two major gas discoveries offshore Trinidad
BP Trinidad and Tobago has made two significant gas discoveries with the Savannah and Macadamia exploration wells offshore Trinidad, an island off the coast of Venezuela in the southern Caribbean. The results of these wells have unlocked approximately 2 trillion cu ft of gas in place to underpin new developments in these areas.
The Savannah exploration well was drilled into an untested fault block east of the Juniper field in water depths of more than 500 ft, approximately 80 km off the southeast coast of Trinidad. The well was drilled using a semisubmersible and penetrated hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in two main intervals with approximately 650-ft net pay.
Based on the success of the Savannah well, BP Trinidad and Tobago expects to develop these reservoirs via future tieback to the Juniper platform that is due to come online mid-2017.
The Macadamia well was drilled to test exploration and appraisal segments below the existing Southeast Queen’s Beach (SEQB) discovery, which sits 10 km south of the producing Cashima field. The well penetrated hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in seven intervals with approximately 600-ft net pay.
Combined with the shallow SEQB gas reservoirs, the Macadamia discovery is expected to support a new platform in the post-2020 time frame.
BP Trinidad and Tobago has a 100% working interest in Savannah and Macadamia.
Keppel to deliver Heydar Aliyev semi to Caspian Drilling
Keppel Offshore & Marine, through its subsidiary Caspian Shipyard Company, is on track to deliver a semisubmersible drilling rig to Caspian Drilling Company, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic.
The rig, named Heydar Aliyev, has been customized for the Caspian Sea’s harsh environment. It is the first modern semisubmersible to be almost completely built in Azerbaijan.
Equipped with well control piping, BOP handling and foundations rated for 20,000 psi, the DSS 38M-design rig will be the first shallow-water semisubmersible to have the capabilities to perform drilling in expanded areas of operation in the oil fields of Azerbaijan.
It is able to work at a drilling depth of up to 40,000 ft and operate in 1,000-m water depth. Designed to be fully moored, the rig will be able to stay in position via an eight-point wire rope mooring system, which is capable of self-contained mooring up to the full range of the water depths of the Caspian Sea.
