Soumya Mutsuddi, Esgian

This week Seadrill announced contract extensions for three jackups in Middle East, and Well-Safe Solutions was awarded a P&A job in the North Sea. Meanwhile, Shelf Drilling agreed to acquire a stacked Aban jackup.

Contracts

Energean added the drilling of two additional wells to its ongoing exploration campaign off Israel by exercising options on its contract for the harsh environment drillship Stena IceMax. The first well is targeted in the Hermes prospect in Block 31, and is expected to spud in August 2022. The target for the second well is under consideration and is largely contingent on the results of the Hermes well. Energean informed that the Stena IceMax completed the drilling of the KM-04 appraisal well, which encountered gas and associated liquids. As per plan, the rig will move to complete the next development well before moving to Hermes in August 2022.

Well-Safe Solutions was awarded a contract by Ithaca Energy involving P&A of six wells on the Anglia platform off UK. Well-Safe informed that harsh-environment jackup Well-Safe Protector is nearing completion of technical preparations and will mobilise to commence the job in late summer 2022. This will be the first contract awarded to the rig since Well-Safe acquired it in 2020. The contract also involved provision of project management, well engineering and all managed delivery services. Further, the contract included options for drilling three additional wells during 2023. 

Seadrill announced contract extensions for jackups AOD I, AOD III, and West Callisto in the Middle East, with total value for the new contracts worth approx. $361 million. The firm term of each contract extension is three years with commencement in direct continuation of the current contracts. The rigs are currently working for Saudi Aramco. 

Drilling and discoveries

Equinor concluded the drilling of drilling of wildcat well 34/9-1 in the North Sea (licence 1049) off Norway, with the well found to be dry. Drilling was carried out by the harsh environment semisub Deepsea Stavanger, which is next scheduled to drill wildcat well 30/3-11 S in Equinor-operated licence 1104 off Norway. The rig’s firm work with the operator runs into Q1 2023. 

APA Corp informed that flow test results from the Krabdagu exploration well (KBD-1) in Block 58 off Suriname indicated combined oil-in-place resources worth approximately 180 million barrels. APA added that the tests were performed in the exploration well, and appraisal drilling will be necessary to confirm additional resource and optimal development well locations. APA holds a 50% working interest in the block which is operated by TotalEnergies. The JV partners are currently drilling the Dikkop exploration well in Block 58 using the ultra-deepwater drillship Maersk Valiant. Following completion of operations at Dikkop, the rig is expected to continue exploration and appraisal activities in the central portion of Block 58. The firm work for the rig runs into Q4 2022 and there are understood to be options attached to the contract. 

Demand

Frontera Energy and partner CGX Energy informed that following discussions with the Government of Guyana, the joint venture will focus exclusively on exploration opportunities in the Corentyne block off Guyana. The decision follows the discovery of light oil and gas condensate at the Frontera-operated Kawa-1 exploration well in the same block. Frontera also informed that preparations are on to drill the JV’s second exploration well in the block, called Wei-1, during Q3 2022. Drilling will be carried out by the ultra-deepwater semisub Maersk Discoverer, with commencement expected in September 2022. Further, Frontera also reached an agreement with the Government of Guyana to relinquish the Demerara block, thereby allowing other interested parties to pursue exploration in that area.

Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd. updated on the commencement of planned drilling operations for its Gazania-1 well in Block 2B off South Africa. Eco informed that semisub Island Innovator is scheduled to mobilise out of Norway in the third week of July and spud the well in early September. Eco anticipates that the well will take approximately 25 days to drill. The rig is currently engaged in well-intervention operations in the North Sea off UK. 

The Government of Indonesia signed three new production sharing contracts (PSC) with bp and Petronas involving three offshore exploration blocks. These blocks were awarded in March 2022 as part of Indonesia’s second round of 2021 Oil and Gas Working Area Bid Round. The three PSCs have a term of 30 years and involve total investment commitments worth $12.14 million. bp signed two PSCs for adding the Agung I and Agung II gas blocks to its asset portfolio in Indonesia. The Agung I Block covers an area of 6,656 km² in deepwaters off Bali and East Java, while the Agung II Block is located in deepwaters off South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and East Java covering an area of 7,970 km². As per bp, the area is underexplored with significant potential of gas resources. The firm work commitments in terms of geological and geophysical (G&G) activity involve acquisition and processing of 2D data covering 2,000 km in both Agung I and Agung II blocks. The third PSC was signed with Petronas for the North Ketapang block, located onshore and offshore East Java. Work commitments in the Block involve Acquisition and Processing of 3D Data over 562 km².

Beach Energy plans to drill an infill well (Yolla 7/Yolla 7 DW1) in the Yolla field, located in Bass Strait off Australia, as per an environment plan submitted to NOPSEMA. The proposed well location is in Beach Energy-operated production licence T/L1, at a water depth of approximately 80m.  Although the well is planned to be drilled from an existing rig slot on the Yolla-A platform, the well is an extended reach well that is planned to primarily intersect the Yolla West Target. In the event the Yolla West target is not commercially viable, the well would be plugged back to a predetermined depth and then sidetracked to drill to the Yolla North target. Drilling activity is scheduled to commence in Q4 2022 and expected to take approximately 90-130 days, depending on the final work program and potential delays. The activities are planned to be completed by Q4 2023 subject to operational delays. As per the plan, a jackup will be used to drill the infill well and while a rig is yet to be confirmed, jackup Noble Tom Prosser is likely to be used.   

Mobilisation

Ultra-deepwater drillship Valaris DS-9 completed its reactivation at Las Palmas and is underway to Angola, where it is scheduled to commence a contract with ExxonMobil. The contract is for a firm duration of two years, with commencement expected later this month.

Ultra-deepwater drillship Ocean BlackHawk commenced transit to Senegal to undertake its next contract for Woodside. The rig is expected to commence the engagement towards late July, with the firm duration running into Q2 2023. The contract is also understood to have options attached.  

Rig Sales / Charter

Shelf Drilling entered an agreement with Aban Offshore to acquire the jackup Deep Driller 7 for $30 million. The rig was built in 2008 and is of Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 design. Deep Driller 7 has not worked in the last few years and is currently cold stacked in the UAE. Shelf informed that it planned to fund the acquisition with cash on hand and the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, with delivery expected in July 2022. Earlier this month, Aban had announced the sale of another jackup, Deep Driller 8, to ADNOC Drilling. In April, the company had announced the sale of jackups Deep Driller 2, Deep Driller 4, Deep Driller 5, and Deep Driller 6 to ADES.

Awilco Drilling completed the sale of 1983-built semisub WilHunter for recycling. This follows an announcement earlier this month as per which Awilco completed the sale of its other semisub WilPhoenix to Well-Safe Solutions. WilHunter has been cold stacked in the UK since 2016 and following its sale, Awilco has no drilling rigs left in its fleet. 

Other News

Upstream reported that a Chinese court started the auction of a previously abandoned jackup after its new owner, Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry, failed to implement a maritime contract with Guangzhou Maritime Salvation & Salvaging Bureau. Details of the contractual dispute were not disclosed. The rig was initially ordered by Falcon Energy in 2013, but the contract was terminated in 2017. As per Upstream, the rig has been named TS Corpal and is a GustoMSC design capable of operating in water depths of 400 feet. The rig is currently stacked at Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry in China’s Liaoning province undergoing completion works. 

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Esgian