Norwegian company Sevan Marine can press ahead with building two more of its innovative drilling rigs thanks to winning contracts worth more than $1.5billion – one with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India, the other with Petrobras of Brazil.
The ONGC contract, for which a letter of intent has been received, will run for three years. Revenues that could be generated over the contract are about $570million, including mobilisation.
Sevan Marine will provide a new-build based on its proprietary Sevan 650 design modified to include the most advanced drilling capabilities in the industry, with a capacity to drill in water depths to 3,300m (10,000ft). It will have a variable deck load of more than 15,000 tonnes and a high storage capacity of bulk materials and drilling fluids, reducing the need for resupply when compared with jack-ups and semi-submersibles.
The Petrobras deal, Sevan’s second with this company, calls for drilling in depths to 2,400m (7,900ft). The latest unit, Sevan Brazil, will basically repeat the Sevan Deepsea Driller built for US Gulf of Mexico operations.
The Brazil drilling contract will have a fixed term of six years, with start-up scheduled by the end of 2012. Revenues are estimated to be $975million, including a bonus arrangement and mobilisation fee.
Sevan Marine says the Sevan Brazil will be designed to include the most advanced drilling capabilities in the industry, based on the company’s own patented technology.
This rig will also feature a variable deckload of more than 15,000 tonnes and high storage capacity of bulk materials and drilling fluids.
Meanwhile, Ensco has been busy with its chequebook, this time ordering a further ultra-deepwater semi-submersible from Keppel FELS in Singapore.
The company said total cost was currently projected to be $537million and that delivery was expected during the first half of 2012. The Ensco 8505 is Ensco’s sixth ultra-deepwater unit of the 8500 Series currently under construction.
When completed, it will bring the US company’s deepwater fleet to seven, including the Ensco 7500, which has been in service since 2000. Four of the Ensco 8500 Series rigs are now contracted to customers for term work commencing on delivery.
Basically, the 8500 Series represents an enhancement of the 7500. Improvements include a two-million-pound “quad” derrick, offline pipe handling capability, increased drilling capacity, improved automatic stationkeeping ability and larger living quarters.
The 8500 Series rigs will be capable of drilling in water depths to 2,590m (8,500ft). Ensco sees the class as especially well suited for deepwater development drilling.
Up in the Russian Arctic, the decade-long construction of the jack-up drilling rig, Arkticheskaya, continues at Russia’s Zvezdochka Yard in Severodvinsk.
The yard reported in June that it had submerged the rig’s three legs to a depth of 20m and then installed the deck, so completing what it described as the most complicated technical aspect of the rig’s construction
The 88m by 66m rig will be used primarily in the Barents and Pechora Seas. It will be capable of drilling to a total depth of 6,500m and has been designed to withstand the extreme weather conditions of the Russian Arctic where, as far as can be ascertained, Russia has just one operational jack-up.
Despite the rig having been under construction for more than 10 years, there is apparently still no indication as to when this ice-capability unit will be ready for work.
Across in the US Gulf of Mexico, progress on the latest, just christened Keppel AmFELS and Diamond Offshore Drilling jack-up is positively meteoric. The Ocean Scepter is the first new-build that Diamond Offshore has christened in more than 20 years and will shortly start drilling offshore Argentina on behalf of ENAP Sipetrol, the overseas operating unit of Empresa Nacional del Petroleo, the national oil company of Chile.
Ocean Scepter is a KFELS Super Mod V B Class jack-up which will be capable of drilling to a depth of 10,670m (35,000ft) and will have accommodation for 120.
While Diamond Offshore prepares to take delivery of its new jack-up, Seadrill of Norway has ordered a further batch of four – two each from KFELS and PPL, with delivery in 2010. Price tag for the lot is some $850million. The two units to be built at KFELS will be based on the KFELS Mod V B design. The rated water depth is 122m (400ft) and drilling depth is 9,144m (30,000ft).
Deliveries are scheduled in June and November, 2010, and the total contract price for the two units is about $420million. These jack-ups will be the fifth and sixth such orders that Seadrill has placed with KFELS.
The two units to be built at PPL Shipyard will be based on the Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 Deep Drilling design. The rated water depth is 114m (375ft) and drilling depth is 9,144m (30,000ft).
Deliveries are scheduled in March and November, 2010, and the total contract price for the units is about $430million. These units will be the second and third jack-up orders that Seadrill has placed with PPL Shipyard.
Options for further units have also been negotiated.
Back in the Arctic and, unusually, Trans Viking Icebreaking & Offshore has been awarded a contract by StatoilHydro for carrying out stratigraphic core drilling in the Greenland Sea north-east of Greenland – between it and Norway’s Svalbard Islands – using an offshore support vessel adapted for the purpose.
The designated vessel is the Vidar Viking, which will be equipped with a drilling derrick, and its moon pool will be opened up.
Although Statoil has not revealed the exact area where the drilling is to be conducted, the seas north-east of Greenland are characterised by very harsh weather and ice conditions.
As a result, the operation will have its ice management carried out in co-operation with the Swedish icebreaker, Oden, including helicopter services for ice surveillance.
Drilling is expected to need about six to eight weeks, with four weeks planned drilling operations off Greenland. The work scope also includes seabed surveying with multi-beam scanner and other research work.