Dana Petroleum News

Esgian reports various drilling contractors disclosing details of discussions with Saudi Aramco regarding jackup contract suspensions in its Week 14 Rig Analytics Market Roundup. These contractors include Shelf Drilling, ADES, Borr Drilling, Arabian Drilling, COSL, and ARO Drilling.Meanwhile, Transocean, Noble, and COSL rigs have firmed up new work in the US Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, and the North Sea, respectively.Report overview:ContractsShelf Drilling has received a notice of suspension of operations on four jackup rigs from a customer in the Middle East.

Esgian has published its Week 49 Rig Market Roundup highlighting new drilling activity in the North Sea and a new licensing deal in Morocco.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesSerica Energy is continuing with plans for its four-well drilling campaign in the UK North Sea, scheduled for 2024 and early 2025. The campaign will be carried out using the semisubmersible COSLInnovator. All four wells are production wells. The first well in the campaign will be a sidetrack of an existing well (B1z) on the Bittern field.

Shell's Penguins FPSO has set sail from China loaded aboard Boskalis' White Marlin semi-submersible heavy transportation vessel.In a social media post on Thursday, Boskalis said: "Boskalis’ semi-submersible transport vessel White Marlin departed from Qingdao, China with an impressive cargo; the 34,000-ton cylinder-shaped Shell Penguins FPSO. After a smooth and safe float-on and [seafastening] campaign, the vessel started her journey to Norway." At the time of writing, the White Marlin was sailing past the east coast of Taiwan…

Heerema Marine Contractors' giant semi-submersible crane vessel Sleipnir has broken its recently set heavy lifting record with the removal of Shell's 10100 mT Brent Alpha jacket in the UK North Sea."This single jacket lift breaks Sleipnir’s recent record for lifting the 8100 mT Jotun-B jacket," Heerema Marine Contractors said Wednesday.The removal of Brent Alpha jacket is Sleipnir’s fourth decommissioning job for this summer. For the Brent Alpha jacket removal, Sleipnir arrived at the Brent Field located 186 km northeast of Scotland’s Shetland Islands on July 23…

Aberdeen-based Oil and gas company Dana Petroleum has awarded Norway's Ocean Installer a contract for work at the Triton Area Development, located in the Central North Sea, around 190 km east of Aberdeen.According to a press release, the award, which is Ocean Installer’s first with Dana, involves the installation and trenching of a 12” Flexible Production Flowline at the Guillemot field.The project will be executed by Ocean Installer’s office in Aberdeen, with engineering work beginning immediately and offshore operations scheduled for Q2 2020. The construction support vessel Viking Neptun will be utilized for the offshore work.“We are delighted to have been awarded this contract and to continue building upon our track record in the UK.

Teekay Corporation, a provider of crude oil and gas marine transportation services, has entered into an agreement with the Chestnut Joint Venture to extend the employment of the Hummingbird Spirit FPSO unit (Hummingbird) on the Chestnut field in the North Sea until March 2023.Chestnut is  a joint venture between Spirit Energy Ltd. and Dana Petroleum Ltd.The contract extension was done in conjunction with the Chestnut Joint Venture’s plan to drill a new well at the Chestnut field.The new Hummingbird contract took effect on October 1, 2019 and is based on a fixed charter rate instead of the previous fixed charter rate plus oil production/price…

Petrogas E&P Netherlands B.V. has exercised an option with Danish driller Maersk Drilling to extend the current contract of jack-up rig Maersk Resolute in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.The contract extension is for one well, A15 on the Dutch continental shelf, with an expected duration of 21 days.The exercised option extends Maersk Resolute’s confirmed work scope into March 2019.The high-efficiency jack-up Maersk Resolute, which was launched in 2008, re-started operations in the Dutch sector in June 2018, after it was originally reactivated from warm-stacking and worked in the sector from June to December 2017.Maersk Resolute is currently on a rig-share contract between Petrogas E&P Netherlands B.V., TAQA Energy B.V.

Maersk Drilling said it has been awarded three consecutive contracts for the Maersk Resolute and a contract extension for the Maersk Resolve, both operating in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.“The North Sea continues to be a key market to Maersk Drilling, and with the new contracts for Maersk Resolute and the contract extension for Maersk Resolve, we are further strengthening our presence in the area,” said Morten Kelstrup, CCIO in Maersk Drilling.Three consecutive contract agreements with TAQA Energy B.V., Petrogas E&P Netherlands B.V. and Dana Petroleum Netherlands B.V. for various types of operations in the Dutch sector of the North Sea have been awarded for jack-up rig Maersk Resolute.Last year…

Transocean announced that an agreement has been reached with the incumbent customer to amend the drilling contract on the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Leader. The rig experienced equipment breakdown that could not be repaired timely, providing the customer with the right to cancel the contract. However, given the otherwise efficient performance of the rig, the customer elected to complete its program with the Leader and Transocean agreed to amend the drilling contract, signed today and effective January 13, 2018, whereby the dayrate and contract duration were modified. The rig is currently in the shipyard for these repairs and will not earn a dayrate during the first quarter of 2018.

Shell announced the final investment decision for the Penguins field redevelopment project in the U.K. sector, which includes the construction of a new-build Sevan Marine designed cylindrical floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The Penguins field is in 165 metres of water, approximately 150 miles north east of the Shetland Islands. Discovered in 1974, the field was first developed in 2002 and is a joint venture between Shell (50 percent and operator) and ExxonMobil (50 percent). The Penguins field currently processes oil and gas using four existing drill centres tied back to the Brent Charlie platform. The redevelopment of the field…

DNV GL has been supporting Dana Petroleum on the development of the Western Isles field and the Western Isles floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel as it progressed towards first oil, which was achieved earlier this month. DNV GL has been engaged by Dana since 2012, as the classification society, verification body and marine warranty provider on the Western Isles FPSO, a Sevan Series 400 cylindrical monohull with a 44,000 bbl/d topsides facility. Uniquely, it is not only the first complete engineering procurement and construction (EPC) FPSO project constructed in China, but also the first offshore unit in China to comply with the UK continental shelf legislation requirements.

Technip has been awarded a brownfield subsea contract for the Triton(1) floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, operated by Dana Petroleum, located in the central North Sea. This FPSO vessel is located 193 kilometers east of Aberdeen, at a water depth of approximately 90 meters. It produces oil and gas from different fields - Bittern, Guillemot West and North West, Clapham, Pict and Saxon, which are tied back to the FPSO vessel via subsea facilities comprising a series of pipelines and manifolds.  additional installation, repair and maintenance works. Technip’s operating center in Aberdeen, United Kingdom (UK), will execute this contract which is a continuation of similar work successfully completed in 2014.

Britain's North Sea oil and gas industry faces a bleak future where more fields are likely to become uneconomic and shut in as platforms close - unless costs can be controlled, operators say. For some elderly platforms in the Northern North Sea, time is running out. If the industry does not get to grips with costs quickly, fresh investment is likely to dry up, forcing unsaleable rusting rigs to be abandoned. "From a cost point of view, the chickens are coming home to roost," said Tim Walsh, senior vice president, asset integrity services at Lloyd's Register Energy.

Aberdeen-based standby vessel operator Atlantic Offshore Rescue has secured a five-year charter with five, one year options to extend with Shell UK to support operations in the Gannet, Annasuria and the Dana Petroleum Triton Asset in the central North Sea. Ocean Osprey, a brand new Class A tanker assist, rescue and standby ship will be used to provide emergency recovery, rescue cover, tanker assistance and general field support in offshore operations. The vessel is the first of a new H820 design from Havyard Ship Design and was developed in close collaboration with Atlantic Offshore.

Asset integrity management specialist XPD8 Solutions said it has continued its recent success in West Africa for work off the coast of Ghana. Over an 18-month period, the company will develop the maintenance program and inventory data for MODEC’s TEN MV25 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, operated on behalf of Tullow Oil. XPD8 is a company in maintenance engineering, condition monitoring and integrity services for the oil and gas sector. The company’s international reach has grown over the past 12 months to cover Europe, South East Asia and Africa.

Heavy lift operations offshore are an awe-inspiring feat, but an operation that requires consistent monitoring of man, machine and procedure to ensure they are conducted in as an efficient and safe manner as possible. Due to a growing focus on safety related to subsea lifting operations, DNV GL recently established a Joint Industry Project (JIP) to develop practical methods for reducing the risks and lifetime cost of steel wire ropes for subsea lifting applications, using an integrated systems approach.

Offshore rope manufacturer, Lankhorst Ropes has been awarded a contract by Aberdeen based Dana Petroleum to provide Gama 98 polyester mooring lines for the Western Isles Development FPSO vessel (Floating Production Storage and Offloading). Given the weather conditions in the North Sea, and relatively shallow water depth, the cylindrically shaped FPSO will use a semi-taut leg mooring system. It will be moored with 14 polyester mooring lines in three clusters of 4, 4 and 6 lines at 250m water depth.

E.ON Exploration & Production's (E&P) Tolmount gas discovery in the UK North Sea could contain significantly higher volumes than originally estimated, making it one of the largest discoveries made in this part of the North Sea for several years. The recently completed appraisal well reached its targets within time and budget on 6th July. A 855 m side-track was completed on 30th July, 2013. "This successful discovery in UK is an important step for our growing upstream business. Tolmount will significantly contribute to the implementation of our business strategy," said Jørgen Kildahl, member of the E.ON Board of Management. The Tolmount gas accumulation is situated near existing gas infrastructure in the UK North Sea.

Scana Industrier ASA subsidiary, Scana Offshore Vestby, has signed a winch supply contract with UK-based Dana Petroleum. The contract is for delivery of mooring winches for Dana Petroleum's new floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) which will be used in their Western Isles Development Project. The total value of the contract is 57 MNOK. Dana Petroleum plc is a $4 billion oil and gas business with operations in the UK, Egypt, Norway, The Netherlands and Africa. The Western Isles Project (Dana 77% and Cieco 23%) will develop two discovered oil fields called Harris and Barra in the Northern North Sea, 160km east of the Shetlands and 12km west of the Tern field. The FPSO will be based on Sevan Marine technology and built at COSCO Qidong Shipyard in China.

The U.K. operation of international oil services group Aker Solutions has announced the appointment of a new vice president to lead greenfield projects as the company looks to expand its capabilities in the sector. Bob Shaw’s appointment is the latest in a series of new senior management appointments at Aker Solutions subsea business in Aberdeen as the company embarks on the next stage in its growth strategy. He will lead development of all greenfield projects, focusing on the successful delivery of work for key clients including Statoil, Petrobras, Total E&P, Dana Petroleum, ENI and others.

Scana Industrier ASA has through its subsidiary Scana Offshore Vestby, been awarded a Variation to the contract for delivery of  Mooring Winches to Dana Petroleum. The contract is for the delivery of  Mooring Winches to Dana Petroleum SO at the Western Isles Development Project in the UK sector of the North Sea. The FPSO will be built based on Sevan Marine technology. The total value of the contract is now updated from 57-million NOK to 74-million NOK. The Mooring Winches have been developed in close cooperation with the customer, says Scana. The project has started and delivery will be in the 4th quarter of 2014. The contracts will involve Scana Steel Stavanger in addition to Scana Offshore Vestby.

ABB wins contract worth $20 million for providing power & automation technologies to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) built by the Chinese shipyard COSCO Nantong for Dana Petroleum. ABB's delivery will contribute to efficient and safe operations, and reliable power distribution on board. The FPSO will have Sevan Marine's characteristic cylindrical design and will be located on the Western Isles field on the UK Continental Shelf, 160 kilometres east of the Shetland Islands.

Hyperdynamics Corporation announced  that Tullow Oil Guinea Ltd. has formally notified the Republic of Guinea, on behalf of the consortium that is exploring for oil offshore Guinea, of its intent to elect to extend the Second Exploration Period for an additional three years, as provided for under the terms of its existing Production Sharing Contract (PSC). During the three-year extension of the Second Exploration Period – which extends through September 21, 2016 – the consortium will be required to drill one exploration well to a minimum depth of 2,500 meters below the seabed. Tullow Oil, the concession's operator, plans to spud the next exploration well – a deep water fan prospect – in the first quarter of 2014.