Statoil has signed a three-year contract for the Stena Carron drillship for exploration drilling on the pre-salt blocks (blocks 38 and 39) in the Kwanza basin in Angola.
The agreement being managed by Stena Drilling is for a three-year fixed term with start-up in Q4 this year or Q1 next.
Estimated total contract value is $700million. The two one-year extensions would extend the value considerably.
Stena Carron has become well known in UK workers as it has played a major role in Chevron’s quest for fresh oil and gas reserves in the West of Shetland sector.
Statoil has also allocated the drillship Discoverer Americas to East Africa to carry out exploration drilling on Statoil-operated acreage offshore Tanzania and Mozambique . . . East Africa.
“Statoil has now secured rig capacity for its planned global exploration programme in 2013 and 2014,” said Tim Dodson, Statoil’s VP for exploration.
“We have been drilling four successful wells in Tanzania the last year, and are now committed to drill additional wells there as well as in Mozambique and Angola.
“Together with a three-well campaign in Gulf of Mexico and also three Statoil-operated wells in Canada and a one-year drilling campaign in the Barents Sea, this demonstrates an ambitious exploration programme.”
In Angola, Statoil will test the pre-salt potential in the Kwanza blocks by drilling the commitment wells on block 38 and 39.
In East Africa, Statoil, along with its respective partners, plans to drill three to four wells testing the further potential of block 2 in Tanzania and to explore the blocks 2 and 5 sector offshore Mozambique.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Statoil will drill three operated wells during 2013 utilising the semi-submersible Maersk Developer.
The company has also exploration activities in two to three partner operated wells in this region coming up in addition to a three-well campaign offshore Newfoundland in Canada.
According to chief procurement officer, Jon Arnt Jacobsen, the company plans to produce 2.5million barrels oil equivalent per day in 2020, and that requires significant drilling capacity.
He said too that Statoil now has the drilling capacity needed for its 2013 and 2014 campaigns.