Data from Westwood Global Energy shows the global offshore rig count for week 24, 2022 stands at 379 jack-ups and 140 active floaters, a modest rise from week 23, 2022
Contractor Shelf Drilling announced it has secured a three-year contract extension for the Shelf Drilling Achiever jack-up rig in direct continuation of its current contract with Saudi Aramco in the Middle East Gulf, keeping the rig employed until December 2025.
Aramco has seven Shelf Drilling rigs under contract. The Saudi major has embarked on a massive offshore rig contracting spree and Westwood expects them to have 78 jack-ups under contract by the end of the contracting round.
106-m Shelf Drilling Achiever is a drilling unit of a GustoMSC CJ46-X100-D design built in 2019. The vessel’s current contract will expire in December 2022. The UAE-based contractor reported 28 of its 30 rigs were contracted at the end of Q1 2022.
Icon Offshore’s jack-up Icon Caren is set to mobilise for ConocoPhillips for a three-well campaign. Earlier this year, ConocoPhillips secured the rig’s services for its drilling campaign offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.
A subsidiary of TotalEnergies has tapped Vantage Drilling for a US$79M contract to secure services for ultra-deepwater drillship Tungsten Explorer. The contract is for a minimum duration of 225 days with three possible options for extension.
The drillship is currently operating in the Mediterranean, where it will be drilling up to two wells before it moves to West Africa to work for TotalEnergies in Q3 2022.
As the rig market continues to tighten and oil prices continue to stay high (Brent opened at US$120 this week), operators are expanding activities and consolidating their presence in existing fields.
Despite announcing the exit of its onshore Nigerian oil joint venture, TotalEnergies has taken a final investment decision on developing an US$850M project offshore Angola as part of plans to develop phase 3 of the CLOV complex located in Block 17. CLOV Phase 3 will see five new wells drilled in water depths between 1,100 and 1,400 m.
Angola’s National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels announced the decision, saying the phase should begin producing in 2024 targeting production of 30,000 barrels per day.
The French oil major serves as the block operator with a 38% stake followed by Equinor (22.16%), ExxonMobil (19%), BP (15.84%) and Sonangol P&P (5%).
This week, BP announced its divestment from a Canadian oil sands field and said it would instead shift focus “to future potential offshore growth.”
BP will now buy Cenovus Energy’s 35% stake in the undeveloped Bay du Nord project in Flemish Pass offshore Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador on Canada’s east coast, where BP already holds six offshore exploration licences.
The deal is valued at roughly US$1Bn. Bay du Nord consists of several oil discoveries made by Equinor over the last decade, located about 500 km northeast of St John’s, Canada.
India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has discovered oil, gas and condensate with a well in the Mumbai offshore region off western India.
Exploratory well SD-4-4 was drilled in C-Series Nomination ML Block and two objects were tested in Daman Formation. Results confirmed the presence of oil and gas along the rising flank of the eastern margin fault. ONGC sees the prospects of such fault blocks opening up a corridor for exploiting oil accumulations in Tapti Daman area.
ONGC also plans to step up investment in exploration, allocating a capital expenditure of about ₹31,000 crore (US$4Bn) in 2022-25. The company owns two exploration blocks in the Andaman Basin under India’s Open Acreage Licensing policy and plans to drill six wells over the next three years.
Oslo exchange-listed BW Energy confirmed it is in talks with Petrobras regarding the potential acquisition of the Golfinho field, offshore Brazil, which Petrobras has listed in its divestment programme.
BW Energy said the move is part of the Group’s “continuous consideration of opportunities to acquire assets,” in line with its company strategy.
The Golfinho field is located at a water depth between 1,300 and 2,200 m in the Espírito Santo basin 60 km offshore Brazil. The Golfinho field has six wells for oil production and two for natural gas production which are connected to the Saipem FPSO Cidade de Vitória. Field operations began in 2007.
Finally, Subsea 7 and the oilfield services outfit Schlumberger will renew the Subsea Integration Alliance for seven more years. The alliance combines Subsea 7’s capabilities with Schlumberger’s OneSubsea subsea technologies, production and processing systems’ business, to jointly design, develop and deliver integrated subsea development systems.
Since January 2020, Subsea Integration Alliance has won the majority of integrated SPS and SURF projects worldwide and continues to build momentum, securing major greenfield projects in Australia, Brazil, Africa and Turkey, as well as significant tie-back work in the Gulf of Mexico and Norway.
