Tracy Dulle • Houston
Seadrill secures LOI for jackup, takes delivery of deepwater rigs
Seadrill has won a letter of intent for the jackup newbuildWest Ariel. The one-year contract for drilling operations in the Southeast Asia region is for $72 million, including mobilization fee.
West Ariel is under construction at Keppel FELS Shipyard in Singapore. Operation is expected to begin in 2Q 2008.
West Ariel is the fifth and final jackup delivered in the current program to Seadrill from its existing shipyard commitments.
Seadrill has also taken delivery of the deepwater drilling rigsWest Phoenix and West Sirius from the Samsung Shipyard in South Korea and Jurong Shipyard in Singapore, respectively.
West Phoenix is estimated to arrive in the North Sea in 3Q 2008 where it has a three-year contract with Total Norge. West Sirius is due in the Gulf of Mexico in 2Q 2008 were it has a four-year assignment with Devon Energy Corp.
Transocean Winner keeps busy schedule
StatoilHydro will conduct exploration drilling at well 30/9-21S and -21A, southwest of Oseberg Sør in the northern North Sea with the semisubmersibleTransocean Winner.
TheTransocean Winner has secured numerous contracts.
The 104-day drilling program is expected to begin after theTransocean Winner has concluded drilling an exploration well south of the Grane field.
Following its stint with StatoilHydro, Lundin Norway, Marathon Petroleum, and Talisman Energy Norge have entered into a three-year contract with Transocean for theTransocean Winner.
The rig utilization is to be shared equally between the three as dictated by a separate rig sharing agreement. The $500-million contract is scheduled to begin in October 2009.
“Lundin Norway has developed an exciting portfolio of exploration and appraisal prospects in Norway,” says Ashley Heppenstall, president and CEO of Lundin Petroleum. “TheTransocean Winner contract and the existing Songa Dee rig contract will give us two and a half years of rig capacity from 2009. We therefore anticipate an aggressive exploration and appraisal program going forward in Norway.”
Hercules gets green light to acquire jackups
Hercules Offshore Inc. will acquire three jackup drilling rigs from Transocean Inc.
The acquisition of theAdriatic III and the High Island I and related equipment has closed for $220 million. The acquisition of the High Island VIII and related equipment for $100 million is expected to close upon completion of its current contract in May 2008.
The US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have granted early termination of the government’s pre-merger antitrust review of the transaction under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.
Sinopacific awards Converteam $15-million contract
Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group Co. Ltd. has placed a $15-million order for multiple Class 3 dynamic positioning (DP) systems with Converteam. The order was placed for French owner BOURBON.
The systems are to feature on board 10 GPA696 IMR (inspection maintenance repair) vessels currently being built by Zhejiang shipyard, a subsidiary of Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd. in Ningbo, near Shanghai.
Converteam will deliver the systems from its UK facility with local support and commissioning provided by Converteam in Shanghai. The first system is due for delivery in January 2009. Thereafter, one DP-3 system will be installed every 10 weeks, with commissioning to follow, until the contract ends in 2011.
WilForce delivered
Awilco Offshore has received its newWilForce jackup from PPL Shipyard.
The Baker Marine Class 375 rig can drill high-pressure/high-temperature wells to 30,000 ft (9,144 m) drilled depth in 375 ft (114 m) of water, Awilco says.
The rig is scheduled to start five months of work for Repsol Exploration Murzuq SA offshore Libya following operational preparations.
Hercules to provide two jackups to Aramco
Hercules Offshore has signed contracts to provide Saudi Aramco with two jackup drilling rigs for three-year terms plus one-year fixed price options at the same rate.
TheHercules 300 and Hercules 261, currently known as the High Island I and High Island VIII, respectively, will fulfill the contracts. The Hercules 300 was acquired on March 14, 2008, and the closing on the purchase of the Hercules 261 is expected upon the completion of its current contract commitment in May 2008.
Hercules Offshore is negotiating contracts, which are expected to be executed shortly, for the dry tow transportation of the rigs from the US Gulf of Mexico to a shipyard in the Middle East in 2Q 2008, where they will begin 90 to 120 days of contract preparation work.
The contracts with Saudi Aramco are expected to begin on Sept. 30, 2008. Potential revenue generated over the three-year contracts totals $151 million forHercules 300 and $140 million for Hercules 261, which excludes payment to the company of reimbursable expenses and a total of approximately $25 million for mobilization of both rigs.
Floating production report forecasts record year in 2009
Capital expenditure for the global floating production market will exceed $34 billion over the next five years, an increase of 25% over the previous five years, according to Infield Systems forecasts.
The report says that 2007 was seen as a year of consolidation, but during 2008 expenditure will reach similar record levels seen in 2006 and is expected to exceed the $6 billion record in 2009. Going forward, the company forecasts that the year-on-year growth will be 4.3%. It is the deepwater and ultra deepwater sector that will command a significant percentage of this total.
At the end of 2007, there were 264 operational floating production systems (FPS) of which 135 were brought on line from 2003-2007, Infield says. Over the next five years, a further 175 units are expected to be brought into operation, including the “speculative” units which are currently in yards, but without assigned projects.
“We expect activity in Africa to continue to dominate both numbers and expenditure in floating production, as deepwater and, increasingly, shallow-water activities are expected to accelerate,” Infield says. “Future activity in Asia should establish this region as the second largest region in FPS market sector.”
Infield expects that as the global fleet continues to grow, opportunities for consolidation and alternative strategies for ownership and development will present themselves and the industry could see further structural change in the floating production sector.
