Velesto Drilling orders Chela Twin cranes for NAGA-6 jackup

Offshore staff

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Velesto Drilling has contracted GustoMSC to supply two of the company’s new Chela cranes, the Chela Twins.

These will be installed on the NAGA-6, a GustoMSC CJ46 design drilling jackup owned by Velesto Energy.

According to GustoMSC, the Chela series is engineered to improve safe handling underneath the cantilever and reduce total time spent on wells.

The cranes’ multi-functional arms provide extra support during operations, providing reach below the cantilever and toward the main deck, opening crane access to an area normally blocked by the cantilever during drilling.

Wireline operations can optionally take place offline, on a nearby well, while the derrick is in service on other well construction operations.

Chela’s main field-proven feature, the company added, concerns safe lifting of well-related parts and tools prior to and after well construction, allowing for a simultaneous operation with the activities performed by the drilling crew at the well center.

This can lead to time savings of 5-15% of total rig days per well. This proven technology represents a robust opportunity to bring forward ROI for every well drilled. With less rig days per well, it directly reduces the industry’s environmental footprint per well drilled.

Fabrication of the Chela Twins started last month, with a planned rig mobilization during the first half of 2022.

In 2019, Maersk Drilling took delivery of the first Chela crane for the Maersk Invincible, a GustoMSC CJ70 design jackup, which has operated since in the Valhall field in the North Sea for Aker BP.

Last month, Petronas issued a letter of award to Velesto Drilling to provide the jackup NAGA 2 for five firm wells, with the program set to start on Dec. 1.

11/05/2021