Maersk Drilling Mulls Leviathan Contracts
Jonas Bjork, commercial manager Maersk Drilling Denmark, a subsidiary of Maersk Group, says that Israel is in his radar in the near future and hinted that his company targets Leviathan contracts, reports Globes.
Bjork added that the Israeli government may make things difficult, but it is also willing to listen and to learn. His impression is that the regulation in Israel in the natural gas sector is difficult, but the government is prepared to study the energy field, is open to change, and is flexible.
According to Bjork, he came to Israel to investigate whether there is a market for drilling here. He knows that the Leviathan reservoir will need rigs for both drilling and production of gas and oil, he pointed out.
The expectation is that 8 wells will be drilled at Leviathan. The drilling alone will take a year, and the entire contract will be for 2-3 years, because there are other things to do beyond the drilling activity. Developing Leviathan, for example, includes the construction of a floating facility to produce and store the condensed gas at sea. Establishing such a facility take much longer than the drilling itself.
He says Maersk Drilling is a contractor of sorts. Maersk carries out the actual drilling, and the gas company pays it a daily rate, regardless of whether or not gas or oil is found. The company owns rigs for deep-water, and ultra-deep-water drilling (more than 3,000 meters), which operate today in places like Angola, Cameroon, the North Sea, Australia, and Egypt.
