USA: Keppel to Turn Ocean Voyager into Ocean Onyx

Keppel AmFELS, a shipyard strategically located at the gateway of the Gulf of Mexico, Brownswille, Texas has secured a contract from Diamond Offshore to construct and upgrade a moored semisubmersible rig with delivery scheduled for 3Q 2013. The estimated shipyard contract price is approximately US$150 million.

The rig, to be named Ocean Onyx, will be constructed from an existing hull from a Diamond Offshore cold stacked unit, which previously operated as the Ocean Voyager.

Keppel AmFELS’ scope of work on the Ocean Onyx includes the reconstruction of the rig, installation of advanced equipment such as a modern drilling package, and installation of sponsons to the pontoons to enhance the stability of the rig in deepwater. The rig will be designed to operate in water depths of up to 6,000 feet and will have a variable deck load of 5,000 long tonnes, a five-ram blowout preventer, and quarters capacity for 140 personnel.

Mr Larry Dickerson, President and CEO of Diamond Offshore, said, “We have worked with Keppel for more than a decade, and our rigs have consistently been delivered on time and within budget, whether in the US or Singapore. With Keppel’s track record as a leading offshore yard, we are confident that this project will also be a success.”

Keppel O&M has previously built four similar semisubmersible rigs for Diamond Offshore: the Ocean Baroness, Ocean Rover, Ocean Endeavour and Ocean Monarch.

Mr Tan Geok Seng, President of Keppel AmFELS, said, “We are pleased to be able to embark on another major rig project for Diamond Offshore, who has worked with Keppel on more than 20 projects since 1996. Diamond’s rigs are sent regularly to our yards around the world for maintenance, repair and upgrade, and Keppel AmFELS has proven to be their choice yard in the US Gulf of Mexico. Having built a long-term partnership with Diamond, we understand the company’s needs and are confident of delivering another high quality rig to their satisfaction.”

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Lucius: Deepwater Gulf of Mexico

Located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico on Keathley Canyon Blocks 874, 875, 918 and 919 (Lease OCS-G-21444) in a water depth of 7,126 feet (2,172 meters) is the Lucius oil and gas field. Acquired by Anadarko, formerly Kerr-McGee, at the Western GOM Lease Sale No. 174 in 2005, the company holds a 35% interest in the field. Co-owners in the discovery include Plains Exploration & Production PEP 23.33%; Anadarko 35%; ExxonMobil 15%; Petrobras 9.6%; and Eni 5.4%

A discovery was made at the Lucius prospect in December 2009. The discovery well encountered more than 200 feet (61 meters) of net pay in subsalt Pliocene and Miocene sands. Lucius was drilled to a total depth of about 20,000 feet (610 meters) by the ENSCO 8500 semisub.

A sidetrack appraisal well was then drilled in January 2010, encountering almost 600 net feet (183 meters) of high quality oil pay with additional gas-condensate pay in thick subsalt sands. Drilled as an up-dip sidetrack roughly 3,200 feet (975 meters) south of the discovery well, the appraisal well reached a total depth of 20,600 feet (6,279 meters) in 7,100 feet (2,165 meters) of water.

Field Development

Anadarko sanctioned the development on Dec. 15, 2011. The development plan calls for six producing wells connecting to a truss spar with a production capacity of 80,000 bopd and 450 MMcf/d of natural gas.
The spar is currently being constructed at Technip’s facility in Pori, Finland. Drilling will begin in 2012 with first production slated for 2014.

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Dutch Fairmount Escorts Scarabeo 9 Rig around the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Fairmount Marine, a Dutch marine contractor for ocean towage and heavy lift transportation, announces that its powerful tug Fairmount Glacier has successfully assisted the new build semi submergible drilling rig Scarbeo 9 sailing around Cape of Good Hope.

For this operation Fairmount was contracted by Saipem Energies directly after the successful installation of  the Usan FPSO Unit offshore Nigeria.

Fairmount Glacier was contracted to sail towards a meeting point offshore South Africa where she met with Scarabeo 9 and escorted her safely around the Cape of Good Hope. Despite the bad weather encountered during the route, the  convoy proceeded at an average speed of 4.5 to 5.0 knots.

The semi submersible drilling rig Scarabeo 9 has a length of 115 metres, is 80 metres wide and her depth – from keel to main deck – is 35 metres. After they had safely cleared the South African Coast, the Master of Scarabeo 9 thanked Fairmount  Glacier for her continued support throughout the voyage. The Fairmount Glacier returned to Cape Town.

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Who Dat

The Ocean Victory semisub discovered the LLOG OCS-G-27277 well in December 2007. The discovery well found more than 380 feet (116 meters) of gas and oil pay zones in four separate reservoir packages. The field was further appraised by two wells testing additional targets in 2010. Once appraisal operations were completed, Who Dat was deemed commercially viable.
The operator stated Who Dat is primarily an oil field consisting of nine stacked, amplitude-supported reservoirs in a salt withdrawal mini-basin. The wells targeted reservoirs ranging in depth from 12,000 to 17,000 TVD. Collectively, the three wells penetrated more than 700 feet (213 meters) of net pay in nine distinct reservoirs.
Field Development
The development plan for Who Dat consists of completing three existing subsea wells, drilling an additional two wells and producing the wells through a subsea system capable of handling up to 12 wells. The wells should flow through three subsea manifolds to the OPTI-EX FPS through flexible risers.
The OPTI-EX FPS, delivered to LLOG in July 2011, is capable of producing up to 60,000 bopd, 150 MMcf/d and 40,000 bwpd.
Production from the Who Dat field is scheduled to commence in mid-2011.

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Ghana: Seadrill Inks One-Year Contract for Ultra-Deepwater Newbuild West Leo

Tullow Oil Ghana Ltd., a subsidiary of Tullow Oil plc has awarded Seadrill a one-year contract for operations offshore Ghana with the newbuild ultra-deepwater semi-submersible rig West Leo.

The potential contract revenue for the one-year period is US$204 million which includes US$18 million in mobilization revenue. In addition, the rig can earn a daily performance bonus of up to 10 percent.

West Leo is currently under construction at Jurong Shipyard in Singapore with delivery scheduled for the end of January 2012. The unit will subsequently start its transit to Ghana where commencement on the Tullow contract is expected in mid April 2012. West Leo will be the second unit of the Moss Maritime CS50 Mk II design that Seadrill puts into operations.

Alf C Thorkildsen, Chief Executive Officer in Seadrill Management AS, says, “We are very pleased to have secured our first deepwater contract with Tullow, a fast growing and dynamic independent oil and gas company. We believe Ghana, which is one of the most promising new deepwater frontiers, may offer significant opportunities for us going forward. We continue to strengthen our revenue backlog and have with this contract secured attractive employment for all our deep and ultra-deepwater units.”

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Statoil: Riserless light well intervention

– a tool for improved recovery.

The successful qualification of a second generation, riserless wireline intervention system gives Statoil a viable alternative for gaining quick and easy access to subsea wells.

Occasionally wells have to be re-entered for maintenance and technical purposes (e.g. replacing and re-perforating tubing; replacing flow control devices; isolating production zones; monitoring production behavior; and logging pressure, flow and temperature).

The procedure, which is known as well intervention, is difficult enough to do from conventional surface platforms let alone when wells are installed on the seafloor.

The normal subsea procedure is carried out from an anchored semi-submersible rig attached to the wells by risers (gas/fluid conduits linking subsea equipment to surface platforms).

Statoil, however, has already gained some experience of using a first generation riserless system, where the intervention equipment is lowered by means of a wire line paid out from a dynamically positioned monohull vessel.

As the operating conditions are somewhat limited, it was decided to test Prosafe Offshore’s latest Multi Service Vessel (MSV) Regalia  system with its 7″ riserless subsea wireline lubricator co-developed with FMC Kongsberg Subsea.

During late 2003, the company entered an all-inclusive contract with Prosafe to supply the services, equipment and procedures necessary to perform selected subsea well interventions at the Statfjord North, Visund and Åsgard fields.

Statoil was responsible for planning the individual downhole programs, which involved a variety of light intervention tasks in water depths up to 390 meters.

Deemed a great success, the company now has the option to use this relatively inexpensive, second generation technology to gain quick and easy access to its subsea wells.

Furthermore, preliminary results from the operation suggest that intervention costs may be cut by as much as one third when compared with anchored rig and riser systems.

Original Article

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Singapore: Keppel Completes Scarabeo 9 for Saipem

Keppel FELS Limited (Keppel FELS) is on track to deliver Scarabeo 9, a 6th generation ultra-deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig, to Saipem S.p.A (Saipem) on time and with no lost time incidents.

A significant part of Keppel FELS’ workscope on Scarabeo 9 involved the completion and commissioning of marine and drilling systems onboard. The rig was named today by Lady Sponsor, Mrs Anna Tatka, spouse of Mr Pietro Franco Tali, CEO of Saipem.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Tali said, “With Keppel’s proven track record, we were confident of receiving a rig of the highest quality delivered on time and in a safe manner. This sixth generation rig will be an important addition to our fleet as we expand our foothold to be one of the best balanced turnkey operators in the offshore and marine industry.”

The Frigstad D90 semisubmersible rig is equipped with a Dynamic Positioning 3 system and will be capable of operating in water depths of up to 3,600 meters.

Mr Tong Chong Heong, CEO of Keppel Offshore & Marine, added, “In completing this complex rig, we leveraged our in-house engineering expertise, proven project management and execution capabilities to ensure quick turnaround times in providing value added solutions.

“We thank Saipem for their trust in us and are glad to be able to demonstrate our capabilities with this safe and on time delivery. This extends to all our projects for Saipem, including the completion of Castorone at Keppel Shipyard. We look forward to supporting Saipem as they grow their fleet of high specification products for different parts of the world.”

Keppel’s current projects for Saipem include the completion of a newbuild pipe laying vessel, Castorone, which is being jointly undertaken by Keppel Shipyard and Keppel Singmarine.

Saipem has also previously sent the Saipem 7000, a semisubmersible crane and pipelaying vessel, for drydocking at the Keppel Verolme shipyard in the Netherlands in 2007. More recently, Keppel Verolme completed the repair and modification of the semisubmersible pipelay vessel, Castoro Sei.

Original Article

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Harvest Natural Resources Starts Drilling at Ruche Marin-A Well, Offshore Gabon

Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. announced today commencement of drilling operations on the Ruche Marin-A exploration well located in the offshore waters of Gabon, West Africa.

This exploration well will be drilled utilizing the Transocean Sedneth 701 semi-submersible drilling unit.

The Ruche Marin-A well will be drilled in a water depth of 380 feet to test multiple stacked pre-salt targets to a planned total measured depth of approximately 10,100 feet. Drilling is anticipated to require approximately 28 days. In the event of success, additional time will be required to test and evaluate the well.

About Harvest Natural Resources

Harvest Natural Resources, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is an independent energy company with principal operations in Venezuela, producing and exploration assets in the United States, exploration assets in Indonesia, West Africa, China and Oman and business development offices in Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Original Article