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Drilling Services News

13 Mar 2024

Equinor Extends Drilling Contracts

Photo: Arne Reidar Mortensen / Equinor

Equinor, on behalf of the partners, is exercising two options to extend contracts with Archer AS, KCA Deutag Drilling Norway AS and Odfjell Operations AS for a total of four years.The options for drilling services on fixed installations on the Norwegian continental shelf provide jobs for 2,000 people per year and have an estimated value of NOK 18.4 billion.The contracts were signed in 2018 with three option periods of two years. The first two-year option was exercised in 2022.

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…

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).

25 Jul 2023

Transocean's Big Move: Adapting Offshore Drilling Vessels to Install Wind Foundations

Credit: Ana/AdobeStock

Transocean, best known for its deepwater drilling services in the oil and gas space, is looking to expand into the offshore wind sector and is planning to convert some of its offshore drilling vessels into wind foundation installation vessels.The company said Wednesday it had executed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with offshore wind installation services firm Eneti with a plan to form a joint venture company that will engage in offshore wind foundation installation…

03 Sep 2021

Noble Corp. Sends Force Majeure Notice to Shell over Drillship Damaged in Storm

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has sent a force majeure notice to its client Shell over the Noble Globetrotter II drillship contract after the rig was damaged earlier this week in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in severe weather during Hurricane Ida. The 2013-built ultra-deepwater drillship has a contract with Shell lasting until early September 2023 at a flexible day rate of at least $275,000.U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that the drillship, located 80 nautical miles south, southeast of Grand Isle, La., in the Gulf of Mexico, had sustained damage and that a plan was being developed to bring the vessel into port for repairs.Around 140 crew members were on board when the storm hit, Reuters reported earlier this week, citing USCG petty officer Carlos Galarza said.Noble Corp.

29 Jul 2021

Transocean Reels In Two Deepwater Drillship Deals in Gulf of Mexico

Offshore drilling firm Transocean said Wednesday it had secured contracts for two offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The contracts are worth $55.5 million in total.Transocean said that its Deepwater Conqueror drillship had won a one-well contract with "a major operator" in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. "The value of this contract adds approximately 85 days and $28.5 million in the backlog," Transocean said, without sharing the identity of the client. Deepwater Conqueror is a DSME 12000 ultra-deepwater drillship, built/upgraded in 2016/2017 by DSME in South Korea.The Deepwater Conqueror is currently in the Gulf of Mexico, under a $579,000 a day charter with Chevron. This contract expires in December.

02 Nov 2020

Pacific Drilling Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Again

Pacific Drilling drillships - Credit: Rab Lawrence/Flickr under CC BY 2.0 license

Offshore drilling firm Pacific Drilling and certain of its subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the aim to eliminate $1.1 billion debt.The company, which had previously filed for Bankruptcy in 2017, said Friday that it and certain of its domestic and international subsidiaries had filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.Pacific Drilling…

03 Sep 2019

Pemex Charters 2 CIMC Jack-ups

Mexican state-owned giant Pemex has chartered two jack-up rigs built and currently owned by Chinese yard CIMC Raffles.The two 400ft Jack-Up Drilling Rigs held a naming and departure ceremony at Longkou. The two rigs will soon sail to the gulf of Mexico to provide oil and gas drilling services to Pemex.Before that, CIMC Raffles and CMIC Ocean signed leasing contracts for the two rigs.The two rigs are named “Gulf Driller 6” and “Gulf Driller 8” respectively, are currently classified by ABS. They adopted JU2000E design which equipped with MHWirth drilling package, the over length is 70m, breadth is 76m, leg length is 167m.They are able to operate at water depth up to 120m(400ft) and drill wells down to 10668m(35000ft) at minus 20 degrees Celsius…

08 Aug 2019

IOG Spuds Harvey Appraisal Well

UK based Independent Oil & Gas (IOG) has confirmed that the Maersk Resilient rig spudded the Harvey appraisal well on 6 August 2019.The North Sea firm said in a press release that as previously indicated, completion of the well is expected to take approximately two months in the success case.According to the development and production company focused on becoming a substantial UK gas producer, Harvey is centrally located within IOG’s asset portfolio in UK Southern North Sea Blocks 48/23c, 48/24a, and 48/24b, close to the Thames Pipeline export route.The primary objective of the well is to confirm gas volumes which management estimate at 85/129/199 BCF Prospective Resources in the Low/Best/High case…

17 Jun 2019

Mermaid Gets Funds for Two Vessels

Thailand-based offshore drilling services company  Mermaid Maritime Public Company said that  its subsidiary Mermaid Subsea Services Thailand (MSST) has entered into a $65 million loan deal with the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (Exim).As per the press release from the provider of subsea and drilling services to the offshore oil and gas industries, the objective of the loan is to extend the financing of the two company’s vessels, the Mermaid Endurer and Mermaid Asiana, for a further period of five years with the same lender.“The loan shall be applied to settle the indebtedness owed to Exim under a previous credit facility agreement for the two vessels and replacing that arrangement with the latest loan instead…

09 Jun 2019

BHGE Launches Multimodal Facility in Angola

Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) announced the inauguration of its multimodal facility (MMF) for oil and gas in Luanda, Angola.The facility, with its additional capabilities across multiple product lines, will deliver a suite of products and services across the oil and gas value chain. It will serve as a hub to support customers and projects in Angola and Southern Africa region, and will also serve customers on a global scale.The strategic location for this multipurpose facility puts BHGE in close proximity to serve important projects in the region. This will enable BHGE to provide faster response and mobilization to customer sites, and reduced product and service delivery costs based on economies of scale of a one-stop shop.

28 May 2019

Seadrill Contract Backlog Reaches $1.9bln

The deepwater drilling contractor Seadrill said that its contract backlog, as of May 23, 2019, totaled approximately $1.9 billion.The drilling services provider said it has added $130 million of additional backlog from March, including the AOD I award of a three year follow on contract with Saudi Aramco keeping the unit employed until June 2022, which adds approximately $82 million in backlog.In addition, Equinor exercised two options for the West Hercules in Norway adding approximately $17 million in backlog. The unit is expected to be employed until the first quarter of 2020.The West Telesto was awarded a six firm plus two option well contract in Malaysia.

17 May 2019

EnscoRowan Wins Arbitration Against SHI

Offshore drilling services provider EnscoRowan announced that an arbitration tribunal has awarded it $180 million in damages in its proceedings against South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).Further, the company will be claiming interest on this amount and costs incurred in connection with the matter.In April 2016, EnscoRowan (then Ensco) initiated arbitration proceedings in London against SHI for the losses incurred in connection with a drilling services agreement for ENSCO DS-5 that was voided by customer Petrobras.In January 2018, the arbitration tribunal issued an award on liability fully in EnscoRowan’s favor, and…

22 Apr 2019

GDI in Drilling Services Contract with NOC

Gulf Drilling International (GDI) has signed a three-year contract with North Oil Company (NOC) to provide drilling services through the drilling rig Dukhan for NOC’s extensive development programmes in Al Shaheen oil field.The Al Shaheen Oil Field is a production oil and gas field off the north east coast of Qatar in the Persian Gulf, 80 kilometres north of Doha.The subsidiary of Gulf International Services (GIS) said in a press release that the signing ceremony was attended by GDI’s Chief Executive officer William Ceppi and NOC’s Chief Executive Officer Jacques Azibert. Also in attendance were Mark Gibson, Chief Operation Officer, and Francis Bourcier Drilling Manager of NOC…

22 Apr 2019

Petrobras Extends BassDrill Beta Contract

Atlantica Tender Drilling, a provider of management and contract drilling services for oil and gas wells for the offshore tender assist market worldwide, announced that Petrobras has extended the rig BassDrill Beta by 180 days."Petrobras exercised its right to extend the Beta contract by 180 days commencing in September 2019 through March of 2020," said a press release from theAtlantica has two semi tender units are secured on long-term development contracts. Atlantica's “BassDrill Beta” is a semi-submersible tender assist vessel built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry. It is a Platform registered and sailing under the flag of Panama.BassDrill Beta has a operational displacement of 21,530 metric ton and total operational payload of 4,500 metric ton.

20 Dec 2018

Borr Drilling Deploys IFS Applications

The global enterprise applications company IFS announced that international offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has deployed IFS Applications to improve operations and optimize its IT landscape.The enterprise software company said in a press release that the go-live is part of an implementation that will see IFS Applications rolled out to 10 oil rigs and over 1,000 users by January 2019.Borr Drilling, with a fleet of 36 rigs, 9 of which are currently under construction,  decided to replace its incumbent business systems to support its goal of becoming the world’s leading provider of jack-up drills and drilling services, and to strengthen the efficiency of its international operations…

29 Nov 2018

Transocean Shareholders OK Ocean Rig Acquisition

Transocean, international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells, has announced that its shareholders approved the acquisition of Ocean Rig UDW, by approving the proposals presented at Transocean’s Extraordinary General Meeting. Switzerland-based offshore drilling contractor quoted its President and CEO Jeremy Thigpen in a press release, as saying: "We are extremely pleased that our shareholders have overwhelmingly approved our acquisition of Ocean Rig. Through this combination, Transocean further enhances our industry-leading fleet of high specification floaters, thus improving our competitive position."Thigpen…

19 Oct 2018

Standard Drilling Sells PSVs

New World Supply, where S.D. Standard Drilling (SDSD) has an ownership of 26.2 percent, has completed a sale of two of its six medium sized platform supply vessels (PSVs).According to the Cyprus-based company that offers offshore drilling services to the oil and natural gas exploration industry, the vessels, World Sapphire and World Emerald, have been in lay-up in Spain since October and November 2016.The purchase price, which remains confidential, has been fully paid for both vessels.The transaction is done at a level that reflect significantly higher vessel value compared to SDSD's book value and acquisition price of the shares in New World Supply Ltd.SDSD consider its holding in NWS as a financial investment.

24 Sep 2018

Rowan Gets New Contract by Turkish Petroleum

Offshore driller Rowan Companies has been awarded a two-well contract for its Rowan Norway jack-up rig in the Mediterranean Sea by Turkish Petroleum.Rowan Companies announced that the Rowan Norway, an N-Class ultra-harsh environment jack-up rig, has been awarded a two-well contract in the Mediterranean Sea by Turkish Petroleum with an estimated duration 100-140 days.The contract is expected to commence in late 2018. The Rowan Norway is currently warm-stacked in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea. Rowan is a global provider of contract drilling services with a fleet of 27 mobile offshore drilling units, composed of 23 self-elevating jack-up rigs and four ultra-deepwater drillships.The Company's fleet operates worldwide…

14 Aug 2018

Cantium Contracts Rowan Jack-up

Rowan Companies plc announced that the Rowan EXL III, an EXL Class high specification jack-up rig, has been awarded a six-month contract from Cantium in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.The contract is expected to commence in early November 2018. The EXL III is currently under contract with Cantium in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico through mid to late August 2018. Rowan is a global provider of contract drilling services with a fleet of 27 mobile offshore drilling units, composed of 23 self-elevating jack-up rigs and four ultra-deepwater drillships.The Company's fleet operates worldwide, including the United States Gulf of Mexico, the United Kingdom and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea…

28 Sep 2018

Petrobras Extends Transocean Contract

The  international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells Transocean announced that the ultra-deepwater drillship Petrobras 10000 was awarded a 790-day contract extension offshore Brazil with Petrobras.The contract is extended through October 2021 and includes a blend and extend modification to the previous contract dayrate, effective September 2018. The additional net contract backlog is approximately $185 million, including cost escalations.Additionally, Transocean will receive a 5% royalty per day, totaling approximately $16 million, estimated to be from October 2018 to October 2021 associated with the…

21 Sep 2018

Transocean Bags Equinor Contract Off Norway

Equinor has awarded Transocean a contract for drilling six wells on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) by use of the Transocean Norge mobile rig. Drilling start-up is scheduled for the summer of 2019.The rig has also been awarded a contract option for drilling four additional wells and is intended for subsequent continuing options. Transocean has previously signed a framework agreement with Equinor.Transocean Spitsbergen was the company’s first rig to be included as per the framework agreement terms, and Transocean Norge will be the second.The contract value for the six wells is estimated at approximately USD 89 million. The services covered by the contract include drilling services such as slop treatment and cuttings handling…

21 Sep 2018

INSIGHTS: John Rynd / President , CEO and Director, Tidewater Inc.

Mr. John Rynd graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer and President, and as a director of Hercules Offshore from 2008 through 2016. Prior to his time with Hercules, Mr. Rynd spent 11 years with Noble Drilling Services, Inc., where he served in a variety of management roles. Earlier in his career, he served in various roles of increasing levels of responsibility with Chiles Offshore and Rowan Companies. Beyond this, Mr. Rynd served as Chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) from 2014-15 and currently holds an Ex-Officio position on the Executive Committee. He serves on the Board of Directors of Fieldwood Holdings LLC, and was on the Board of Directors of Hornbeck Offshore, Inc.