Bassoe Analytics weekly rig market round-up (week 33)
Rig Contracts
ExxonMobil has awarded a new six-month contract for provision of ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Sam Croft for operations offshore Guyana. Work will begin in Q4 2020 on completion of the rig's current campaign with Apache off Suriname. With this award, all four of Noble's high-specification HHI drillships will now be contracted to ExxonMobil in Guyana.
KrisEnergy has signed a letter of award with PV Drilling for the provision of jackup PV Drilling III for a five-well development drilling campaign offshore Cambodia. The rig will undertake work at the Apsara Mini-Phase 1A development, with a start date still to be confirmed.
Vantage Drilling ultra-deepwater drillship Platinum Explorer is expected to remain with ONGC slightly longer than expected as it has had some extra wells added to its Indian drilling campaign. Meanwhile, jackup Emerald Driller has resumed operations for Total offshore Qatar and Vantage and Total are already in discussion for the remaining one-year contract option.
NewAge will now use Vantage Drilling jackup Sapphire Driller instead of jackup Topaz Driller for a drilling campaign offshore Congo, as was previously planned. The drilling contractor and operator are still exploring a reasonable window to undertake the campaign due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation.
Woodside has confirmed a delay to the start-up of its exploration campaign offshore Myanmar, using Transocean ultra-deepwater drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2. The campaign was set to begin in October 2020 but is now being targeted for H1 2021.
Petrobel has rescinded the previous notice of early termination for Shelf Drilling jackup Trident 16 and will now continue working on a call out contract offshore Egypt until early 2021.
Shelf Drilling jackup Trident VIII received an early-termination notice from Amni Nigeria, with the contract end date updated to July 2020.
Jackup Shelf Drilling Enterprise has had its contract commencement with Chevron Thailand delayed to November due to COVID-19 related logistical challenges.
i3 Energy and Dolphin Drilling remain in discussion on the timing of a potential future drilling campaign at the UK Liberator and Serenity fields using either the Borgland Dolphin or Blackford Dolphin. The duo in March 2020 entered into a provisional drilling contract, however the deal is yet to be firmed up.
Serica and Maersk Drilling have agreed to defer commencement of jackup Maersk Resilient's one-well drilling campaign in the UK sector to a window between March and July 2021.
Rig Demand
The Australian authorities have accepted Shell's proposal for the development of the Crux offshore project, that will include five new wells drilled from a moored semisub over a two-year period.
Sapura OMV plans to drill the Kanga-1 wildcat in Permit WA-412-P, offshore Australia, commencing in Q3 2021 using an anchored semisub. The operator has submitted its plans for the drill to the Australian regulator NOPSEMA. Timing for the drill is still dependent on MODU and vessel availability, weather conditions and the receipt of the required statutory approvals.
Deltic Energy and Shell are moving ahead with planning activities for a potential exploration well targeting the Selene prospect in P2437 in British waters. Subject to a final well investment decision being made, the well will spud with a jackup during 2022.
Africa Energy expects to spud the Gazania-1 exploration well in Block 2B, offshore South Africa, in Q1 2021. The company is closing in on a farm-out at the block prior to the drill, which will cover its costs during the campaign. Water depth at the site is understood to be 150m (492ft).
Drilling Activities & Discoveries
Neptune Energy claims to have made the largest discovery of 2020 so far with its Dugong well off Norway, drilled using newbuild semisub Deepsea Yantai, owned by CIMC and operated by Odfjell Drilling.
Odfjell Drilling semisub Deepsea Stavanger has arrived offshore Cape Town ahead of its new exploration and appraisal campaign in South African waters with TOTAL that is set to begin at the end of this month. The ultra-deepwater, harsh-environment rig will drill for around one year with the operator, with the first well to target the Luiperd-1 well, located in Block 11B/12B.
Jackup Noble Regina Allen is currently completing operations offshore Canada and will start its next drilling campaign, which will be offshore Trinidad and Tobago, with BHP during September. The new campaign will see the rig occupied into Q2 2021.
Medco Energi has successfully encountered gas while drilling its Kaci-2 appraisal well in the South Natuna Sea and is preparing to spud the Terubuk-5 appraisal well next. The operator currently has jackup Soehanah (also known as the Pearl Driller) and tender rig EDrill-2 on hire for work in the Natuna Sea this year.
Ultra-deepwater drillship Stena Carron is preparing to spud the Tanager prospect in the Kaieteur Block for ExxonMobil offshore Guyana.
Transocean harsh-environment semisub Leiv Eiriksson is preparing to spud a new wildcat targeting the Warka prospect as part of a new drilling campaign with ConocoPhillips offshore Norway.
Jackup Noble Sam Turner is due to move from Nigg to UK Block 12/30 to drill the Finzean exploration well for Total during the last week of August.
Harsh-environment semisub Transocean Arctic has completed its development drilling campaign for Wintershall Dea at the Dvalin field and has moved inshore Norway. It is understood the 1987-built rig will be retired from the fleet.
Petronas will spud an exploration well targeting the Gaharu prospect offshore Malaysia later this month using Transocean ultra-deepwater semisub Deepwater Nautilus, which it has on hire until early next year.
Shelf Drilling jackup Key Manhattan is now expected to remain suspended from drilling operations on its contract with Eni offshore Italy at reduced rate through year end 2020.
Wellesley Petroleum has received permission from the Norwegian authorities to drill exploration well 6204/11–3 using harsh-environment semisub Borgland Dolphin. The well will target the Schweinsteiger prospect in the Norwegian North Sea PL829.
Saipem jackup Perro Negro 5 completed its drilling campaign with Saudi Aramco as planned and has moved inshore Bahrain. Saipem has reported that the rig will be recycled. Jackup Perro Negro 9 is set to replace the rig and will go on hire with Saudi Aramco shortly.
Total is set to resume exploration drilling operations offshore Angola and Namibia using ultra-deepwater drillship Maersk Voyager at the end of this month. Operations were suspended in April due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Newbuilds & Sales
Awilco Drilling says that it is considering various options to secure additional funding for the second harsh-environment semisub (Nordic Spring) it has on order with Keppel, after earlier terminating the order for its first unit (Nordic Winter) with the yard. The driller also added that it has the option to defer delivery of the second rig, and the related payment, by up to one year.
Shelf Drilling is in the process of completing the sale of its 1982-built jackup Trident XIV, which is now off hire and stacked in Nigeria.
Financial Information
Awilco Drilling reported a total comprehensive loss for the second quarter of 2020 of USD 4.6 million. Revenue earned in the second quarter was USD 6.4 million.
Vantage Drilling reported a net loss attributable to controlling interest of approximately USD 31.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020, compared to a net income attributable to controlling interest of USD 590.7 million for the three months ended June 30, 2019.
Shelf Drilling reported a net profit of USD 8.1 million for the second quarter of 2020 on revenues of of USD 155 million, which is a 14.5% sequential decrease compared to Q1 2020.
Maersk Drilling reported revenues of USD 305 million for the second quarter of 2020 and an EBITDA before special items of USD 168 million for the first six months of 2020.
Transocean has hired Lazard Freres & Co to advise it on strategic alternatives to manage its capital structure.
Oil Price
OPEC reported in its monthly report that World oil demand will fall by 9.06 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, more than the 8.95 million bpd decline expected a month ago due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Other
Ex-Schlumberger exec Patrick Schorn will replace Svend Anton Maier as CEO of Borr Drilling next month.
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Data: Bassoe Analytics, Image attribution: Noble.
