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Drilling Activity News

24 Mar 2024

Esgian Week 12 Report: New Finds in Guyana, China and Norway

© bomboman / Adobe Stock

Esgian reports fresh finds confirmed in Guyana, China and Norway in its Week 12 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDolphin Drilling has announced the award of a $154 million drilling contract from India's exploration and production company, Oil India Limited (Oil India), to the 6,000-ft semisub Blackford Dolphin.Malaysian offshore drilling firm Velesto confirmed Friday it had recently secured long-term contract extensions for three of its jackup rigs with Petronas Carigali


17 Mar 2024

Esgian Week 11 Report: New Discoveries in UK and Namibia

Source: COSL

Esgian reports that drilling contracts have been announced this week for operations in Brazil and the Philippines, and new discoveries have been confirmed in the UK and Namibia in its Week 11 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsCOSL Drilling has emerged as the winner for Petrobras' moored semisubmersible tender with the 4,600-ft Nanhai 8 (also known as Nan Hai Ba Hao).Noble has secured a high-dayrate drillship contract with Prime Energy in the Philippines.Drilling Activity and


10 Mar 2024

Esgian Week 10 Report: Additional Backlog Secured

© freddytb Foto / Adobe Stock

Esgian reports that offshore drilling contractors secured additional backlog in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, and Brazil and operators confirmed new discoveries in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, and China in its Week 10 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsDiamond Offshore has executed a two-year contract extension with a subsidiary of bp in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for the 12,000-ft drillship Ocean BlackHornet.Shelf Drilling’s 250-ft jackup Rig 141 has secured a two-year


03 Mar 2024

Esgian Week 9 Report: Dolphin, Diamond and Seadrill Updates

© AndSus / Adobe Stock

Esgian reports rig-related updates from Dolphin Drilling, Diamond Offshore, and Seadrill in its Week 9 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDespite Tullow Oil’s recent announcement that it would take a break from drilling offshore Ghana, Noble Corp. has stated that there has been no contract termination announcement and that its 12,000-ft drillship Noble Venturer is currently still contracted to Tullow into March 2025.Masirah Oil Ltd has signed a rig contract with


29 Dec 2023

Esgian: New Contracts, Drilling Activities and Rig Moves Across the World

Borgland Dolphin drilling rig (Credit: Dolphin Drilling)

Esgian's last roundup of the year for the Week 52 puts spotlight on new developments for Dolphin Drilling semisub, Seadrill drillships, as well as Shell’s plans for Australia and ONGC’s new tender for jackups in India.ContractsDolphin Drilling has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed operator for the 1,500-ft semisubmersible Borgland Dolphin to undertake a 500-day drilling campaign in the UK. The drilling campaign is planned to begin directly after the firm part of the contract period with EnQuest, which was announced in late November 2023.

17 Dec 2023

Esgian: Rigs on the Move in Asia and Europe

Source: OMV

This week Esgian’s Week 50 Rig Analytics Market Roundup notes developments in the semisub sector including that Shell has decided to exercise its option on Stena Don in the North Sea but not on Deepsea Bollsta in Namibia. Meanwhile, a new contract for the Transocean Barents will see it operate in the Black Sea, and jackup Shelf Drilling Perseverance will move to Vietnam.ContractsShelf Drilling has secured a contract award for the 400ft Shelf Drilling Perseverance jackup rig with PetroVietnam Domestic Exploration Production Operating Company Limited (PVEP POC).

11 Dec 2023

Plans in Progress for New North Sea Wells

Source: COSL

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.

16 Jan 2023

Exxon Set to Order Fifth Guyana FPSO, Sizing up More Blocks

©MODEC

Exxon Mobil Corp. is preparing to approve its fifth oil production project in Guyana and is considering taking additional exploration acreage, the head of its Guyanese operations, Alistair Routledge, told Reuters in an interview. The efforts would add significantly to the $30 billion committed thus far by Exxon and Guyana partners Hess Corp and CNOOC Ltd. The latest development will cost about 27% more than the last, a new estimate showed, reflecting inflation and the larger scope of the project.

14 Jun 2022

West Africa Market Harbors Positive Potential for MODU Operators

Chart courtesy MSI

The region could be a key growth market for the oil and gas industry going forward, writes Joshua Belo-Osagie, Maritime Strategies International (MSI).Improving sentiment surrounds energy market prospects offshore West Africa, the positive mood underpinned by higher oil prices, reformed regulatory frameworks in key markets including Angola and Nigeria and the discovery of major prospects off the Ivory Coast and Namibia.In addition, the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have only reinforced some of these pre-existing dynamics


18 Jan 2022

Baker Hughes Finds US Drillers Add Most O&G Rigs Since April

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U.S. energy firms this week added the most oil and natural gas rigs in a week since April as rising oil prices prompt more drillers to return to the wellpad.The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose 13 to 601 in the week to Jan. 14, its highest since April 2020, said Baker Hughes in its weekly report. The total count was up 228, or 61%, over this time last year.U.S. oil rigs rose 11 to 492 this week, their highest since April 2020, while gas rigs rose two to 109, their highest since March 2020.

30 Dec 2021

Oil Firms Predict Rising Output, But Warn of Higher Costs

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U.S. oil and gas executives are predicting higher production and drilling activity next year as oil prices climb, but say they face sharply higher costs, according to a poll released on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.Some 49% of executives surveyed said they aim to expand output next year, while 15% said their main focus would be to maintain existing production levels and 13% plan to focus on reducing debt. Six-month outlooks remained positive, but the index declined


18 Aug 2020

Kongsberg Hybrid Power System for Island Offshore PSV Trio

Kongsberg Maritime will convert Island Offshore's 'Island Crusader' to hybrid operation. 
Image by: Gunder Tande Sandersen

Norwegian offshore support vessel owner Island Offshore has awarded a contract to Kongsberg Maritime to supply turnkey hybrid battery solutions for three platform supply vessels.Two vessels Island Crusader and Island Contender, previously operated with a combination of Bergen LNG engines and Bergen Diesel engines, while the Island Commander deploys four diesel engines. Now, they will be equipped with battery packs and shore connections."The conversion of all three into hybrid


24 Apr 2020

Maersk Drilling to Mothball Several Rigs, Reduce North Sea Headcount

A Maersk Drilling rig - Image Credit: Maersk Drilling

Danish offshore drilling contractor Maersk Drilling is set to mothball several offshore drilling rigs, and as a consequence, reduce the number of offshore workers, citing low oil prices and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic as the reason."The COVID-19 pandemic and the lower oil price environment are impacting offshore drilling activity. Some tenders and projects are being delayed or canceled which adversely affects commercial prospects," Maersk Drilling said Friday.As previously reported, Tullow Oil in March sent an early termination notice for the Maersk Venturer drillship in Ghana.

23 Dec 2019

OSVs: Rising Tide Won't Lift All Boats

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The offshore supply vessel (OSV) industry has emerged from its 2017 trough, thanks in large part to a slight shrinkage of the active fleet, a string of debt restructurings, improved cost management, and an uptick in drilling activity in a few regions. The industry is far from healthy, though, and the climb back to financial well-being will likely be long and unsteady. Not every operator will survive. And even though we’ve seen some improvement from 2017 levels, leverage ratios remain sky-high, the supply of vessels far outstrips demand, and—most crucially—the price of oil remains volatile.

08 Dec 2019

Offshore: OSV Market Report

Photo courtesy Ulstein Group/Marius Beck Dahle

The environment in oil patches onshore and offshore alike has been challenging throughout 2019; worries about an economic slowdown – whether cyclical or induced by a trade war – have weighed heavily on oil prices, even in the face of reduced production by the big producers. Though storm clouds persist, there appears a clearing on the horizon.The fate of Offshore Service Vessels (OSVs) is, naturally, closely tied to the price of oil. Seacor Marine’s John Gellert, in reviewing its Q2 results, said: “Activity levels in the U.S.

15 Oct 2019

Four Steps to Successful Rig Intake

© Mike Mareen / Adobe Stock

After a period of dormancy, drilling activity and rig utilization is up. Yet despite an increase in demand for rigs, there is still an oversupply. Few long-term fixtures, gaps in schedules and rigs moving between different regulatory regimes create new rig intake challenges.What does this mean for your rig intake strategy? Your preference may be to contract a hot rig, as the operational risks are significantly less when compared to contracting a rig which has been nonoperational. But are the hot rigs actually “hot”?

30 May 2019

Only 10% of Shale Firms Reports Positive Cash Flow

Only four, out of the financial performance of 40 dedicated US shale oil firms under study, reported a positive cash flow balance in the first quarter of 2019, bringing down the share of companies with a positive cash flow balance from the recent norm of around 20% to just 10%.Nine in ten US shale oil companies are burning cash, according to Rystad Energy.Total cash flow from operating activities (CFO) fell from $14 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 to $9.9 billion in the first quarter of 2019.“That is the lowest CFO we have seen since the fourth quarter of 2017,” says Alisa Lukash, Senior Analyst on Rystad Energy’s North American Shale team.“The gap between capex and CFO has reached a staggering $4.7 billion.

25 Mar 2019

Exxon, Chevron Accelerate Shale Production

The two biggest U.S. oil companies Chevron and ExxonMobil plan to significantly ramp up production in the US shale heartland as the oil behemoths are seeking to go from shale to scale in the Permian.Rystad Energy’s shale team analysed as to which operator holds the best potential in the prolific basin spanning parts of Texas and New Mexico and announced that Chevron has the better opportunity to continue to grow post 2030.ExxonMobil will have to drill about twice as many new wells as Chevron to reach the communicated production goal. The explanation relates in part to the difference in base production, it said.As of 2018, Chevron’s unconventional output in the Permian was 75% higher than ExxonMobil’s


09 Dec 2018

Tower Resources Hires Vantage Drilling for Cameroon Well

UK-based Tower Resources has announced it has contracted US offshore driller Vantage Drilling International to provide drilling operations at the NJOM-3 well offshore Cameroon. The well is located in Tower’s 100%-owned Thali licence.The Topaz Driller is a Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 jack-up, which was recently mobilised to Cameroon by NewAge as operator for the Etinde license for two appraisal wells and is currently employed in Gabon, informed a press release from the upstream oil and gas company.As announced on 1 November 2018, the terms of the contract are confidential, however, the economics are consistent with Tower’s current drilling cost estimates


13 Nov 2018

BY THE NUMBERS - Offshore Supply Vessels: Balanced Continued Pressure with Gradual Recovery

Global consulting firm AlixPartners, in a new paper entitled, “Too many ships, too few rigs: why recovery is still a distant dream for the OSV sector,” warns that companies counting on a quick return to stability in the OSV sector are in for a rude awakening.The September report goes on to say that OSV companies continue to face pressure due to a radically changed oil industry and must take quick and decisive action in order to survive in what should be considered the ‘new normal.’Separately, VesselsValue.com’s Head of Offshore, Charlie Hockless told MarineNews, “I would agree that there are murmurs of a potential market recovery brewing


13 May 2018

Renewed Optimism is Exploration

Renewed optimism is the theme for exploration in 2018, driven by higher oil prices and improving exploration performance. The cost of exploring has fallen more than 50% since 2013/14 and there are fewer companies competing for acreage, said a research report by Westwood Global Energy Group. It could be argued that there has not been a better time to be exploring in the last decade. The geology economic to explore increases considerably above $60/barrel and in the first quarter of 2018 the oil price averaged $67/barrel. Success rates have improved as lower exploration budgets have led to companies being more selective. The effort and money expended on finding another large deep water oil province in the Atlantic Margins has finally borne fruit in Guyana.

08 Aug 2018

Deep Casing Tools Re-enters Canada

Aberdeen-based oil field technology firm Deep Casing Tools (DCT), which specialises in the design and manufacture of casing and completion tools, has agreed a pact with a Canadian distributor, ProTorque Connection Technologies (PTCT).The partnership with ProTorque, a tubular running service business, will see Deep Casing Tools re-enter the Canadian market, which historically was a successful region for the company.Deep Casing Tools previously had an office in Alberta, Canada, but during the more challenging times of the oil and gas industry downturn and a reduction in drilling activity, took the decision pull out of the region.Following


21 Feb 2018

Transocean Upbeat About Offshore Recovery, Despite Quarterly Loss

File photo: Transocean

Drilling contractor Transocean Ltd on Wednesday expressed optimism about a recovery in offshore drilling activity this year, despite reporting its third quarterly loss in a row. Companies that provide services and equipment for oil and gas exploration and production, among the worst hit by the 2014 oil price downturn, have grown optimistic about the future as oil prices recently have bounced back. In recent quarters, companies that focus on providing services to onshore shale producers have posted the biggest gains