Jackup Rig News

Seatrium has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Japan-based Penta-Ocean Construction (POC) to carry out early engineering work for a 5,000t fully-revolving heavy lift vessel project for the Japan wind market.Subject to the final investment decision by POC, the full EPC contract award is expected in 1Q 2025.POC owns a range of self-propelling trailing suction hopper and cutter suction dredgers for marine construction works as well as two turbine installation vessels equipped with a 800t and a 1,600t lifting capacity crane respectively.

Esgian highlights news from TotalEnergies in its Week 40 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryDrilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) has given Aker BP consent to use the 492-ft jackup Noble Invincible for production drilling on the Tambar Øst (East) field offshore Norway.TotalEnergies will resume exploration drilling in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia in the fourth quarter of 2024 with the Tamboti prospect, located in Block 2913B north of the company’s Venus discovery.Aker BP has proven gas in appraisal well 6507/2-7 S in the Norwegian Sea…

Esgian highlights several new contracts in its Week 39 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsMarket sources indicate that ADNOC has exercised an extension option for the 350-ft jackup drilling rig Aryabhatt 1 in Abu Dhabi.Petrobras has awarded two floating rig contracts to Constellation Oil Services for work at the Roncador field in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. Valued at $1 billion, the two contracts will see Constellation 10,000-ft drillship Laguna Star and Hanwha Drilling 12,000-ft newbuild Tidal Action operate for Petrobras for around 2.5 years.

Esgian has no rig contracts to announced but provides an update on rig moves and drilling operations in the US Gulf of Mexico, Canada, Morocco and Norway in its Week 38 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryDrilling Activity and DiscoveriesExxonMobil has abandoned the Persephone C-54 well on EL 1169 in the Orphan Basin offshore Newfoundland, Canada.Seadrill’s 12,000-ft drillship West Neptune has resumed drilling operations on LLOG’s Who Dat South exploration well in the US Gulf of Mexico…

Esgian provides an update on new contract awards for Greatship, Transocean, Noble and Stena Drilling in its Week 36 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsGreatship has secured a contract with Cairn for its 350-ft Greatdrill Chetna jackup drilling rig in India. The contract is firm for six months at a dayrate of approximately $90,000, starting in late November or early December 2024.Transocean has secured a binding letter of award from Reliance Industries for its 6th generation 12…

Esgian provides an update on plans for Petronas to return to the deep waters off Mexico in its Week 35 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsMalaysia's Velesto said Monday it has secured a Letter of Award for its 350-ft jackup Naga 3 from Vietnam-based Thang Long Joint Operating Company (TLJOC).Dolphin Drilling’s Letter of Intent (LoI) with an undisclosed operator in the UK for its 1,500-ft semisub Borgland Dolphin has lapsed and the rig is now available for new…

Seatrium has delivered its fourth jackup rig, Vali, to Borr Drilling from its Pioneer Yard in Singapore about a year ahead of its planned delivery next year.Vali is a KFELS Super B Class rig, specifically engineered to operate in water depths of up to 400 feet and capable of drilling to depths of up to 35,000 feet. The rig can also drill deep wells both vertically and horizontally. Its cantilever structure is designed with a maximum combined load of 3,700 kips and is equipped with an advanced…

Esgian provides an update on the second round of jackup suspensions in Saudi Arabia in its Week 32 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsArabian Drilling has confirmed that Saudi Aramco has initiated discussions with the drilling contractor over the suspension of an additional leased offshore rig, following an initial round of contract suspensions that began earlier this year. Arabian Drilling has not stated which of its jackups is the target of the current suspension discussions.ADES does not expect new contract suspensions for its fleet by Saudi Aramco this year.

Esgian provides an update on the current lull in contracting in its Week 27 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsAban Offshore-owned 250-ft jackup Aban II has received a letter of award (LOA) from Oil India for an offshore work program in Andhra Pradesh, India.Shelf Drilling North Sea has secured a new 17-month contract for the 400-ft Shelf Drilling Winner (previously known as Noble Sam Turner) jackup rig with TotalEnergies EP Denmark.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe…

Esgian provides an update on drilling activity in its Week 26 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsVentura Offshore has been granted exclusive marketing rights from Hanwha Drilling LLC for the newbuild 12,000-ft 7th generation drillship, Tidal Action, for an ongoing tender process in Brazil.Transocean has announced a 365-day contract extension for the 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Asgard with an independent operator in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.Northern Ocean Ltd.-owned 7…

Esgian provides an update on rig sales and the shrinking pool of vintage semisubs in its Week 22 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsNoble Corporation has secured a new well intervention contract with Harbour Energy in UK waters of the North Sea for the 350-ft jackup Noble Resilient.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe recently drilled offshore production well at the Kupe oil and gas field in New Zealand is underperforming despite a recent wireline well intervention.BW…

Esgian provides an update on Saudi suspensions in its Week 20 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsDrilling contractor Arabian Drilling confirmed that the suspension of three contracts for its jackups with Saudi Aramco have yet to be finalised but are expected to take effect towards the end of the third quarter of 2024. CEO Ghassan Mirdad stated that the company is actively exploring opportunities to redeploy these rigs with other clients. Arabian Drilling announced…

Esgian reports that new drilling contracts have been announced in the North Sea and West Africa in its Week 17 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsShelf Drilling (North Sea) has secured a letter of award with an unnamed operator, believed to be TotalEnergies, for the 400-ft jackup Shelf Drilling Fortress for a campaign in the North Sea.Noble 12,000-ft 7th generation drillship Noble Venturer has secured new contracts in West Africa with Trident Energy and Rhino Resources…

Esgian reports on the many rig movements that occurred last week in its Week 16 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsADES Holding Company has received a letter of award from an international oil company for a one-year firm drilling contract for a jackup offshore Qatar.TotalEnergies has exercised a three-well option for Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Skyros offshore Angola at a rate of $400,000, keeping the rig working into December 2025.After initially beginning a short-term job in the US GOM in January 2024…

Esgian reports that offshore drilling contractors secured additional backlog in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, and Brazil and operators confirmed new discoveries in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, and China in its Week 10 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsDiamond Offshore has executed a two-year contract extension with a subsidiary of bp in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for the 12,000-ft drillship Ocean BlackHornet.Shelf Drilling’s 250-ft jackup Rig 141 has secured a two-year…

This week Esgian’s Week 50 Rig Analytics Market Roundup notes developments in the semisub sector including that Shell has decided to exercise its option on Stena Don in the North Sea but not on Deepsea Bollsta in Namibia. Meanwhile, a new contract for the Transocean Barents will see it operate in the Black Sea, and jackup Shelf Drilling Perseverance will move to Vietnam.ContractsShelf Drilling has secured a contract award for the 400ft Shelf Drilling Perseverance jackup rig with PetroVietnam Domestic Exploration Production Operating Company Limited (PVEP POC).

Singapore-based rig builder Keppel FELS announced Friday it has delivered a new jackup rig to EnscoRowan. The US based driller, the product of a recent merger between Ensco and Rowan, has a contract to deploy the rig in the UK North Sea.The harsh environment newbuild ENSCO 123 is constructed to an enhanced version of Keppel’s state-of-the-art KFELS Super A Class design, the builder said. It was ordered by Ensco in November 2013 and originally planned for delivery in 2016.ENSCO 123 is the ninth harsh environment jackup built and delivered by Keppel to EnscoRowan.

Singapore's Keppel FELS has delivered the jackup rig, Cantarell IV, to Grupo R with a perfect safety record.The wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M) said that as part of the deal, Grupo R has entered into a sale and leaseback agreement with FELS Asset, another wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel O&M.FELS Asset will purchase the rig from Grupo R for US$179m which is equivalent to the balance contract value of the rig. Cantarell IV will be leased back to Grupo R on a bareboat charter at competitive day rates over five years. IPC, the parent company of Grupo R, will provide a Parent Company Guarantee on Grupo R's charter payment obligations.Under the bareboat charter…

Noble Corporation has announced the purchase of a new Gusto MSC CJ46 design jackup rig from the PaxOcean Group (PaxOcean) in connection with a concurrently awarded drilling contract.Noble paid $33.75 million of the $93.75 million purchase price in cash, with the remainder of the purchase price, or $60 million seller-financed at a 4.25% interest rate paid in cash and 1.25% paid in kind over the term of the financing.The Company used existing cash balances for the initial payment and the secured seller-financed amount is to be repaid in four years. The Company also has an option for the purchase of a second newbuild CJ46 jackup from PaxOcean.The newbuild jackup, to be named the Noble Johnny Whitstine, was built at the PaxOcean Graha shipyard in Batam, Indonesia.

Singapore yard Keppel Corporation is considering a sale of jack-up rigs to Norwegian offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling, reports The Business Times. The world’s biggest builder of oil rigs is seeking to offload six jack-up rigs for up to US$960 million to the Oslo-listed drilling firm headed by Tor Olav Trøim, said the report. BT also reported that Keppel Capital has already hooked up with structured finance provider Clifford Capital to potentially extend a sale-and-lease-back arrangement for at least one jack-up contracted by Grupo R. The global offshore oil drilling sector is slowly trying to emerge from an industry downturn since the oil price crash.

Northern Offshore announces it has sold its semisubmersible Energy Driller to an unnamed party for conversion to alternative use. The unit had previously been cold stacked at a shipyard in Bahrain following completion of a term drilling contract in India. Northern Offshore previously sold the drillship Energy Searcher in late 2016. Chairman and (Interim) CEO Dr. Northern Offshore is a global offshore drilling company historically operating in the North Sea, West Africa, South Asia, Near East and Southeast Asia. The company's fleet consists of one floating production facility, one new high specification jackup rig and five high specification jackup rigs under construction.

Lamprell announced its exclusive collaboration with GustoMSC to develop the Lamprell Jackup-43 (LJ43) jackup rig design, creating an advanced drilling rig with the highest level of safe, efficient and reliable drilling capabilities. The LJ43 drilling rig will combine Lamprell’s system integration capability, detailed engineering expertise and construction experience with the robust and advanced technology of GustoMSC designs. The rig utilises GustoMSC’s leg design with a custom designed hull and living quarters developed by Lamprell. It includes various high-end technology features such as a new innovative blowout preventer handling system and enhanced skidding capabilities via a X-Y cantilever, which will enable optimised and highly efficient drilling.

The new Cat J jackup rig Askeladden started drilling on the Gullfaks field on 26 March, with the goal of providing new production from old wells and exploring to create new value. Askeladden has been bought by the Gullfaks licence to carry out production and exploration drilling on Gullfaks Satellites. For several months the rig had to wait on weather, both on its way from the yard in South Korea and when it met the Norwegian winter weather. It arrived at the field on February 19th and on 5 March the legs were firmly placed on the seabed at its final location by the subsea template. “Safety is our top priority – we will not start any operations before we are confident that they can be carried out safely.