Esgian Week 39 Report: Petrobras Finalizes Roncador Tender

Esgian highlights several new contracts in its Week 39 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.

Report Summary

Contracts

Market sources indicate that ADNOC has exercised an extension option for the 350-ft jackup drilling rig Aryabhatt 1 in Abu Dhabi.

Petrobras has awarded two floating rig contracts to Constellation Oil Services for work at the Roncador field in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. Valued at $1 billion, the two contracts will see Constellation 10,000-ft drillship Laguna Star and Hanwha Drilling 12,000-ft newbuild Tidal Action operate for Petrobras for around 2.5 years. The contracts are expected to commence in the third quarter of 2025.

Northern Ocean Ltd. has signed a strategic alliance agreement in Ghana and secured a one-well contract for 7,500-ft semisubmersible Deepsea Bollsta with the Springfield group of companies.

Drilling Activity and Discoveries

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) has granted Equinor a drilling permit for an exploration well offshore Norway. The wellbore 6406/6-7 S, targeting the Mistral Sør prospect, is located in production licence 1119 in the Norwegian Sea.

Equinor and its partner DNO have made an oil and gas discovery in the northern part of the North Sea offshore Norway.

Demand

BW Energy subsidiary BW Kudu Limited has applied to conduct an appraisal drilling program on Petroleum Production Licence 003 on Block 2814A in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia.

Kistos’ appraisal well on the M10a and M11 licences north of the Wadden Islands off the Netherlands remains on hold as the operator is waiting on a decision from the government related to a request for changes in the licence conditions.

Kistos has concluded the second phase of Concept Select for the Orion oil development in the Netherlands and the final investment decision (FID) is awaiting clarity on the status of projects to extend the life of existing third-party infrastructure.

Joint venture partners in the Greater Laggan Area (GLA) in the West of Shetland are prioritising the Glendronach development and partner Kistos anticipates that Prax Group, a new operator of the GLA, will add additional momentum for sanctioning development projects to extract near-term value.

Deltic Energy’s farm-out discussions for the Syros prospect located in the Central North Sea have been suspended pending a review of the expected update to the UK's taxation regime, which will be presented in the October budget.

Reabold Resources plans to relinquish two North Sea licences due to the inability to secure partners for these assets amid current political and fiscal uncertainty in the UK. Reabold has been seeking partners for licences P2605 and P2504, however, there is a drill or drop deadline of 30 November 2024 on both of these licences.

Mobilisation/Rig Moves

ARO Drilling’s 200-ft jackup rig ARO 2003 has been relocated to Zamil Shipyard in Dammam from an offshore location in Saudi Arabia.

Japan Drilling’s 1,640-ft semisubmersible rig Hakuryu-5 is nearing the end of its contract with Petronas Carigali and will depart Malaysia soon.

COSL’s 2,460-ft semisub COSLInnovator is expected to leave the Gannet field and move to the Guillemot North West field in the UK around the end of this week.

Stena 10,000-ft drillship Stena DrillMAX has arrived back in Guyana, where it is expected to resume work for ExxonMobil for the next few months.

COSL's 375-ft jackup COSLSeeker arrived in Singapore from Saudi Arabia on 25 September 2024 aboard the heavy-lift vessel Zhen Hua 33.

Rig Sales

Shelf Drilling has confirmed the completion of the sale of the 375-ft jackup Baltic for $60 million.

Other News

PTTEP has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to sell its 16.67% interest in the Block 29 project offshore Mexico to operator Repsol.

The Seadrill-owned 10,000-ft drillship West Capella has transitioned back to Seadrill’s management, after previously being managed by Vantage Drilling.

A Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) analysis of exploration activity in Norway over the last 20 years (2004-2023) shows that the discoveries are valued at three times the costs expended.

Challenger Energy has received approval from Uruguay's state-owned oil company and regulator, Ancap, to move forward with the farm-out of its AREA OFF-1 licence to Chevron.

Norwegian operator OKEA has entered into an agreement with Lime Petroleum to sell its 15% working interest in the Yme licence, located in the North Sea off Norway, for a post-tax cash consideration of $15.65 million.

In response to a legal challenge from a local indigenous group, Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-owned oil company, has officially renamed two offshore exploration areas. The former names Uchuva and Tayrona will now be known as Sirius and Gua-Off-0, as confirmed in a filing with the Colombian securities regulator.

Environmental watchdog Rimbawatch has warned that the Tun Mustapha Marine Park (TMP) offshore Sabah, Malaysia is threatened by oil and gas exploration in offshore Block 403.

Brazilian independent oil company Prio has confirmed that it is negotiating with Sinochem for the potential acquisition of a stake in the Peregrino field but that the parties have not entered into a binding agreement.

Indonesia's Pertamina confirmed this week that one of its subsidiaries had recently signed a rig sharing agreement with Kangean Energy Indonesia.