DEPARTMENTS • DRILLING & COMPLETION NEWS
Angola Block 15 exploration
well a success for ExxonMobil
The recently awarded contract extension for Sonadrill’s Libongos drillship has
a term of 25 months. The rig is managed and operated by Seadrill.

Libongos set to drill 12 more wells offshore Angola
Sonadrill Holding, a 50:50 joint ven-
ture between Seadrill and Sonangol, has
secured a 12-well extension in Angola
for the Libongos drillship at a dayrate
of $402,500. Total contract value for the
firm portion of the contract is approxi-
mately $327 million, inclusive of addi-
tional services. The firm term of the
contract is approximately 25 months.

There are currently three drillships
bareboat-chartered into Sonadrill: a
Seadrill-owned unit, the West Gemini,
and two Sonangol-owned units, the
Quenguela and Libongos. Seadrill man-
ages and operates the units on behalf of
Sonadrill. New contracts add $488 million to Transocean backlog
Transocean announced contract
awards or extensions for five rigs.

Together, the fixtures represent approxi-
mately $488 million of firm backlog.

■ The Deepwater Invictus drillship, was
awarded a new three-well contract with
an estimated 100-day duration in the
US Gulf of Mexico with an independent
operator. ■ The Transocean Barents semisub-
mersible was awarded a new one-well
contract with an estimated 110-day
duration in the UK North Sea with a
major operator.

■ Harbour Energy exercised the third
option on its UK North Sea contract with
the Paul B. Loyd Jr. semisubmersible, for
eight P&A wells, extending the contract
to Q3 2024.

■ In Norway, certain previously dis-
closed options under the Transocean
Norge contract with Wintershall and
OMV have been added to the backlog.

■ TotalEnergies exercised a one-
well option on its contract with the
Development Driller III semisubmers-
ible, working in Suriname. The incre-
mental well is expected to last 90 days.

Velesto Energy wins integrated jackup drilling contract
Hess E&P Malaysia has awarded
Velesto Energy with a contract for the
provision of integrated rig, drilling and
completion services (i-RDC) for Hess’
2022 to 2024 North Malay Basin Full
Field Development Campaign. The con-
tract includes the provision of Velesto’s
NAGA 5 jackup. Under the i-RDC con-
cept, integration of drilling rig services,
6 equipment and, in some cases, procure-
ment of materials for drilling and com-
pletion services are covered under a
single contract between the operator
and one service company as an i-RDC
contractor. Velesto will partner with Halliburton
as its technical partner to drill and com-
plete 14 offshore wells.

A new discovery has been announced
at the Bavuca South-1 exploration well on
Angola Block 15. The well encountered
98 ft (30 m) of high-quality, hydrocarbon-
bearing sandstone. It is located approxi-
mately 365 km northwest off the coast of
Luanda and was drilled in 3,608 ft (1,100 m)
of water by the Valaris DS-9 rig.

The well is part of the Angola Block
15 redevelopment project, operated by
ExxonMobil. The multi-year drilling pro-
gram aims to produce approximately
40,000 bbl/day.

Tullow signs PSC for Côte
d’Ivoire exploration license
Tullow Oil has signed a production-
sharing contract (PSC) for offshore explo-
ration license CI-803 in Côte d’Ivoire.

Tullow will operate the licence with 90%
equity, with the remaining 10% held by
PetroCi. The license strengthens Tullow’s posi-
tion in the Tano Basin, where significant
prospectivity has been identified within
the Cretaceous turbidite plays. These are
similar to the plays producing in the adja-
cent TEN and Jubilee fields.

Precision Drilling bolsters
positions in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait with new rig deals
Precision Drilling was recently award-
ed four contracts in Kuwait, each with a
five-year term and an optional one-year
renewal. The contract awards are for
the company’s AC Super Triple 3000 HP
rigs and will increase its active rig count
in Kuwait from three rigs to five by the
middle of 2023.

In addition, Precision recently signed
its third drilling rig in Saudi Arabia to a
five-year contract extension, following
two earlier five-year contract signings
last year.

With the three contract extensions in
Saudi Arabia and the Kuwait contract
awards, Precision will have eight rigs
under long-term contracts in the Middle
East stretching into 2028 and represent-
ing approximately $600 million in back-
log revenue.

JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2023 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R




DRILLING & COMPLETION TECH DIGEST • DEPARTMENTS
Robotics module offers new path to scale automation
Nabors Industries launched its Canrig
Red Zone Robotics (RZR) Rig Floor
Module, a modular rig upgrade that auto-
mates routine drilling activities in areas
like the catwalk, pipe rack, rig floor and
derrick. RZR is electric powered, allowing pre-
cision control and digital workflows. It
enables completely hands-free pipe han-
dling and eliminates the need for a crew
member to be positioned on the floor and
in the derrick. The system autonomously
performs repetitive tasks on the rig floor,
including making drilling connections
and tripping in and out of hole. It enables
offline stand-building and handles cas-
ing in upper, intermediate and produc-
tion sizes.

All features are enabled through
Nabors’ proprietary rig operating sys-
tem, SmartROS, which can be installed
on existing rigs and control third-party
rig manufacturer’s equipment. RZR is
modular and may be deployed on most
standard rig configurations to optimize
drilling operations and achieve consis-
tently best-in-class performance.

Nabors has retrofitted RZR to an exist-
ing rig, X29. The upgrade was capital-
light, according to the company, and was
completed at a fraction of the cost of a
newbuild rig. The X29 has already drilled
multiple horizontal wells for ExxonMobil
in the Permian Basin.

The RZR technology incorporat-
ed learnings from Nabors’ work with
ExxonMobil on the R801 fully automated
rig. The rig recently drilled nine wells,
with well times approaching Nabors’
best West Texas fleet averages.

The R801 was purpose built, however,
and the companies are now working on
validating the use of modular rig retrofits
as a viable path to scale drilling automa-
tion. Nabors says it plans to integrate
RZR into its high-spec rigs over time and
will also offer the system to other drilling
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WILDWELL.COM ADNOC: Record-breaking
50,000-ft well drilled at
Upper Zakum Concession
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
(ADNOC) announced it set a world record
for the longest oil and gas well at its Upper
Zakum Concession.

Stretching 50,000 ft, the well is around
800 ft longer than the previous world
record set in 2017. ADNOC Drilling drilled
the well from Umm Al Anbar, one of
ADNOC Offshore’s artificial islands.

ADNOC Offshore designed and led
the extended-reach well project in col-
laboration with its Upper Zakum part-
ners ExxonMobil and INPEX/JODCO.

The extended-reach wells will tap into
an undeveloped part of the giant Upper
Zakum reservoir, with the potential to
increase the field’s production capacity
by 15,000 bbl/day of oil without the need
to expand or build any new infrastructure.

Umm Al Anbar is one of Upper Zakum’s
four artificial islands, serving as a hub for
offshore drilling and operations.