Deep Gas News

Singapore-based rig builder Keppel FELS announced Friday it has delivered a new jackup rig to EnscoRowan. The US based driller, the product of a recent merger between Ensco and Rowan, has a contract to deploy the rig in the UK North Sea.The harsh environment newbuild ENSCO 123 is constructed to an enhanced version of Keppel’s state-of-the-art KFELS Super A Class design, the builder said. It was ordered by Ensco in November 2013 and originally planned for delivery in 2016.ENSCO 123 is the ninth harsh environment jackup built and delivered by Keppel to EnscoRowan.

Delivery marks 20th rig completion by Keppel FELS in 2013. Keppel FELS Ltd. (Keppel FELS) has delivered ENSCO 121, the second ultra-premium harsh environment ENSCO 120 Series jackup rig, to Ensco plc (Ensco). Built to an enhanced version of Keppel’s proprietary KFELS Super A Class design, the rig has been chartered for deployment in the North Sea. Wong Kok Seng, Managing Director (Offshore) of Keppel Offshore & Marine and Managing Director of Keppel FELS, said, “We are pleased to deliver ENSCO 121, our 18th newbuild rig for Ensco and our 20th for this year 2013.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced final details for the Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 233. The sale will take place on August 28 and will cover roughly 20.7 million acres million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development. The bureau estimates the proposed lease sale could result in the production of 116 to 200 million barrels of oil and 538 to 938 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The sale offers 3,864 blocks, located from nine to 250 miles offshore, in water depths ranging from 16 to more than 10,975 feet (five to 3,346 meters). The sale, which will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, includes all available unleased or non-protected areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.

As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand domestic energy production, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Tommy P. Beaudreau announced that Interior will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. Proposed Lease Sale 233, scheduled to take place in New Orleans in August, will be the third offshore auction under the Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 (Five Year Program).

Keppel to deliver sixth ultra-deepwater semi to Ensco over the past 42 months. Keppel FELS Limited is on course to deliver ENSCO 8505, the sixth of seven ENSCO 8500 Series® ultra-deepwater semisubmersible (semi) drilling rigs to Ensco (NYSE: ESV) safely, on time and within budget. The rig is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2012 with zero lost-time incidents in over five million man-hours worked. Upon completion, ENSCO 8505 is contracted in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico with Anadarko, Apache and Noble Energy. With Singapore's Minister of State for Transport and Finance, Mrs Josephine Teo, as the guest-of-honour, the rig was named ENSCO 8505 at Keppel FELS today.

Keppel AmFELS Inc., a wholly-owned US subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, has delivered the third of four EXL jackup rigs to a subsidiary of Rowan Companies, Inc. ahead of schedule and within budget. The jackup was christened Rowan EXL-III yesterday by Barbara Ladner, spouse of Laron Ladner, Operations Construction Manager and employee of 41 years for Rowan. The rig is scheduled to depart Keppel AmFELS' yard in Brownsville, Texas in January 2011 to commence operations on an ultra deep gas well for McMoRan Exploration Company in the Gulf of Mexico. David Russell, Rowan's Executive Vice President of Drilling Operations, said, "High-end jackups will have a key role in the future of offshore drilling. Demand for such units is strong.

Keppel AmFELS Inc., a wholly-owned US subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has delivered the third of four EXL jackup rigs to a subsidiary of Rowan Companies, Inc. (Rowan) ahead of schedule and within budget. The jackup was christened Rowan EXL-III yesterday by Mrs Barbara Ladner, spouse of Mr Laron Ladner, Operations Construction Manager and employee of 41 years for Rowan. The rig is scheduled to depart Keppel AmFELS' yard in Brownsville, Texas in January 2011 to commence operations on an ultra deep gas well for McMoRan Exploration Company in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr David Russell, Rowan's Executive Vice President of Drilling Operations, said, "High-end jackups will have a key role in the future of offshore drilling. Demand for such units is strong.

Ensco said that a subsidiary of the company has purchased Diamond Offshore's Ocean Shield jackup drilling rig, a KFELS Super B Class design, delivered in 2008. The rig will be renamed ENSCO 109. The unique design includes two million pound hoisting capacity, a 15,000 psi high-pressure BOP and nearly 5,000 bbls of liquid mud capacity that make ENSCO 109 ideally suited to drill deep gas wells -- a high growth area in the premium jackup market. The design also permits drilling in water depths up to 350' to a total depth of 35,000'. Industry-wide, all of the KFELS Super B Class jackups are contracted. Chairman, President and CEO Dan Rabun stated, "The Middle East and Southeast Asia, in particular, are regions where we believe customers will require more high-spec, deep-gas jackup rigs. Mr.

Central Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 213, held on March 17 in New Orleans, attracted $949,265,959 in high bids. The sale was conducted by Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and had 77 companies submitting 642 bids on 468 tracts comprising over 2.4 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The sum of all bids received totaled $ 1,300,075,693. “The bidding activity at today’s sale speaks to the future of deepwater Gulf in providing vital energy production for the nation,” said Lars Herbst, MMS Gulf of Mexico regional director. A total of 151 tracts in water depths less than 656 feet received bids. This represents 32 percent of all tracts receiving bids, an increase of five percent from last year’s Central Gulf lease sale.

As the 2009 state legislative session gets underway, Greater New Orleans, Inc. said it will be active in targeted areas of Energy, Trade, Creative Media, and Tax Competitiveness. The Energy policy platform is branded as REEL - Renewed Energy Economy of Louisiana. The energy package includes legislation to incentivize deep gas exploration and enhanced oil recovery. The energy legislation will be led by Rep. Nickie Monica from the River Parishes and Senator Blade Morrish from Southwest Louisiana. A recent study conducted by economist Dr. Jim Richardson projects that the combined impact of passing the energy bills would increase state revenues by $25 billion dollars over the next 30 years through increased oil and gas production, especially in south Louisiana.

Island Oil & Gas Plc. said it has won the Q13b exploration licence from the Dutch government, valid for five years. The minister of economic affairs of the awarded the license to Island Netherlands B.V., a wholly owned unit of Island Oil, and , the designated operator, will hold a 100 percent working interest in the license. Island Oil intends to split the license into a shallow (oil) and deep (gas) part, with Island Oil operating the shallow part with a 100 percent interest and Cirrus Energy Nederland B.V. operating, on behalf of its partner Petro-Canada Netherlands B.V., the deep part in which Island Oil will have no equity interest. The Q13b license contains part of the Zaan Field which has up to 12.4 million barrels of gross oil in place. Source:  Thompson Financial

Lift boats are the unglamorous vessels of oil and gas well servicing industry. They travel to the job site with three large cylindrical legs rising 150-250 ft. above the waterline. Once onsite, lift boats lower their legs to the seabed and raise their hull up to 100 ft. above the waterline to be even with the structure they are servicing to provide a stable platform for workers to transit from the lift boat to the project in which they are working. These versatile vessels can serve through the entire life of a oil or gas well from driving casing to provide a "path" for a jackup rig to drill through construction of the platform, repair and renovation of the platform to plug and abandonment of the well.

The 2003 workboat construction market had its ups and downs and at best has given mixed signals about 2004 and beyond. Among the various workboat vessel segments, passenger vessels, excluding ferries and inland waterway vessels such as tugs and push boats, are in a static mode. Vessels will be built in 2004, but at a pace constant with years past. Some markets such as the building of patrol boats and other vessels with national security implications appear are sure bet winners for 2004 with several shipyards with large contracts that have deliveries stretched out for two years or more in some cases. Another market that continues to grow is high-speed aluminum passenger ferry and the slower passenger/vehicle ferries.

Sinvest ASA of Norway has, through a subsidiary of its wholly owned Singapore company Deep Drilling Invest Pte. Ltd., exercised an option with Keppel FELS Limited (KFELS) to build another KFELS Super B class jackup at $126 million on the back of rising deep gas drilling activities. Their decision came after successfully raising funds through a convertible loan to facilitate the exercise of one of the company’s construction options for deep gas drilling. In February 2004, the Skeie…

Keppel AmFELS Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Limited (Keppel O&M), is on course to a timely delivery of Scorpion Offshore Ltd.’s first jackup drilling rig at the end of May 2007. The ultra premium drilling rig, Offshore Courageous, is the first of five jackups that Keppel AmFELS is constructing for Scorpion Offshore. The other four rigs are Offshore Defender, Offshore Resolute, Offshore Vigilant and Offshore Intrepid. Mr Ho Cheok Yuen, President and CEO of Keppel AmFELS, said, “Keppel AmFELS and Scorpion Offshore share a win-win partnership. The close collaboration and open communication between the teams are key factors that contributed to the success of the project. “As with many shipyards worldwide, Keppel AmFELS is faced with high level of activities.

Keppel AmFELS Inc., is expected to deliver the first of its five jackup rigs on time and within budget for Scorpion Offshore Ltd. Keppel AmFELS launched the premium rig Offshore Courageous on November 4, 2006, which marked the completion of the hull works, a major milestone in its construction of the jackup. Ho Cheok Yuen, President and CEO of Keppel AmFELS, said, “We are committed to our delivery schedule for Offshore Courageous, and I am pleased that we are progressing as planned for our first rig for Scorpion Offshore. The other four Scorpion rigs are named Offshore Defender, Offshore Resolute, Offshore Vigilant and Offshore Intrepid. All five rigs are built to the LeTourneau Super 116 design, with leg lengths of 477 ft.

Scorpion Drilling Ltd (Scorpion) has exercised its option to order two additional LeTourneau Super 116 jackups to be built at Keppel AmFELS in Brownsville, Texas. The contract price for the two rigs, excluding Owner Furnished Equipment, is approximately $180 million. The new units represent the third and fourth jackup rigs in Scorpion’s fleet. The first two rigs, which were secured in July 2005, are currently being constructed by Keppel AmFELS. All four units are ultra-premium class jackups suited for both international operations as well as deep gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Scorpion also holds one option for Keppel AmFELS to build another comparable rig. This option will expire at end November 2005.

Although this has been considered an off year in the Gulf of Mexico from rig count and fleet utilization standpoints, it is another record year for major offshore operators expanding their fleets and the shipyards that are building these vessels. Last year, over 50 supply boats were delivered and about an equal number of crew/supply vessels made their way into the fleets of operators. This year looks equally robust as vessels are being ordered in quantities of four, six and even 10. This begs the question as to why offshore vessel operators are order record number of vessels if the business is sluggish? The answer is two fold: Deep water and deep gas. Drilling activity is bound to increase based on these two factors industry leaders believe.

There has been a steady stream of bad news recently in the marine press regarding the health of the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Much of this bad "press" is fueled by boat operators who are trying to do a "Rope-a-dope" on their competitors. That is by "talking the industry down" they are trying to convince competition that "better days" may be years out, hoping they may not be ready when the turnaround comes. All indications are that the industry will indeed drill itself out of the current malaise - sooner than later. And the indicators for such a turnaround are right in front of your face if you know where to look. In general, people who follow intensely the oil and gas industry all agree that a significant rebound is on the way.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) has announced the Final Notice of Lease Sale 198 for offshore oil and gas in the Central Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The lease sale is scheduled for March 15, 2006, in New Orleans. The lease sale encompasses 4,040 unleased blocks of approximately 21.3 million acres in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Planning Area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The blocks are located from three to about 210 miles offshore in water depths of four to more than 3,400 meters. MMS estimates the lease sale could result in the production of between 276 to 654 million barrels of oil and 1.59 to 3.30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Near record oil and gas prices led to robust bidding in an offshore federal lease sale today. The Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 198, garnered $588,309,791 in high bids from 82 companies for oil and natural gas leases in the Federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The total of all bids was $978,310,887. This represents a 38% increase over last years Central Gulf Sale. The sale, held March 15 in New Orleans, was conducted by the Minerals Management Service. In Sale 198 the agency received 707 bids on 405 tracts. Johnnie Burton, Director of the Minerals Management Service, spoke briefly at the sale. “The Department is committed to working with all interested parties to enhance energy development in an environmentally responsible manner in available areas of the Gulf,” she said.