Esgian Week 16 Report: Rigs on the Move

Esgian reports on the many rig movements that occurred last week in its Week 16 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.

Report Summary

Contracts

ADES Holding Company has received a letter of award from an international oil company for a one-year firm drilling contract for a jackup offshore Qatar.

TotalEnergies has exercised a three-well option for Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Skyros offshore Angola at a rate of $400,000, keeping the rig working into December 2025.

After initially beginning a short-term job in the US GOM in January 2024, Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Invictus has had its work with an undisclosed client extended into July 2024.

Market sources indicate that several ADES jackups have begun their suspension periods under a recent agreement with Saudi Aramco.
Drilling Activity and Discoveries

China's CNOOC has started infill drilling operations in Beibu Gulf, off China, Horizon Oil, a partner in the project said on Monday.

Valeura Energy has recently made three oil discoveries offshore Thailand.

Transocean’s 1,640-ft semisub rig Transocean Equinox is expected to start drilling for Shell at the Crux field offshore Australia this week.

Vår Energi has made an oil discovery in the Ringhorne Nord (wells 25/8-23 S and 25/8-23 A & B), north of the Ringhorne Øst field, in the Balder area off Norway.

Woodside Energy has reached an FID on the Xena-03 offshore well in the Xena field to support ongoing production from the Pluto LNG Project in Australia.

Demand

EnergyPathways is in progressive engagement with regulators to enable fast-track development of its Marram gas project located in the Irish Sea.

Hartshead Resources and its joint venture (JV) partners in the Phase 1 gas field development in the UK North Sea (Somerville and Anning) are committed to progressing the project, subject to receiving certainty regarding future fiscal policy.

Baron Oil's Timor Leste subsidiary SundaGas has decided on the new location for the Chuditch-2 appraisal well site after a survey showed that the seabed at the previously proposed well site was unsuitable for a jackup rig.

Deltic Energy considers its Central North Sea oil prospect Syros 'drill ready' and is working to secure a joint venture partner through a farm-out process ahead of a required well commitment.

Europa Oil & Gas has restarted a farm-out process for its operated FEL 4/19 licence located in the Slyne Basin offshore Ireland, which contains the Inishkea West prospect.

i3 Energy and Europa Oil & Gas continue to asses various development scenarios for the Serenity field discovery located in licence P.2358 in the UK North Sea, but there are concerns over the impact of possible future changes in the UK’s fiscal regime on project economics.

Ping Petroleum UK has received a “Letter of no objection” from the UK’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) in relation to the proposed development concept for the Licence P2451 in the Central North Sea, which contains the Fyne oil field.

Mobilisation/Rig Moves

Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Aquila arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 14 April 2024 after over a month-long journey from Singapore. 

The 7th generation drillship is set to commence a 3-year contract with Petrobras in early June, adding to Brazil's fleet of currently contracted rigs, with Petrobras managing 26 out of 31.

The Foresight-owned 350-ft jackup Foresight Driller IX will perform its contract preparation in Mumbai, India.

Vantage Drilling's 12,000-ft drillship Platinum Explorer arrived in Labuan, Malaysia from Singapore on Wednesday, 17 April.

Noble's 12,000-ft drillship Noble Faye Kozack has left the Las Palmas port in Spain en route to Brazil for a contract with Petrobras.

Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 will start work for ONGC offshore India this month after around 86 days of contract preparations that began in late January 2024.

ADES' 250-ft jackup Admarine 261 has started moving towards its drilling location in the Persian Gulf to start a contract with Saudi Aramco.

COSL Drilling’s 2,460-ft semisub COSLPioneer has completed its contract with Ithaca Energy on the Captain field in the UK North Sea and is moving on to a new contract with CNOOC.

Eldorado Drilling's recently delivered 12,000-ft drillship, Dorado, has arrived in Labuan, Malaysia. The drillship was delivered by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea earlier this month.

Valaris’ 400-ft harsh-environment jackup rig, Valaris 247, has left the North Sea region ahead of two new contracts in Australia, thereby reducing the North Sea jackup count to 34 and increasing the Australian count to 2 units.

Other News

Petrobras has approved the sale of the Cherne and Bagre fields offshore Brazil to Perenco for $10 million.