Industry News

Transocean has secured contracts for three of its rigs – the Transocean Barents semisubmersible as well as the Deepwater Skyros and Invictus drillships – according to its quarterly fleet status report. Altogether, these deals are worth approximately $326 million.As of February 2024, and including these newly-secured deals, the company’s total backlog is approximately $9 billion.The Barents was awarded a minimum 540-day contract in the Romanian Black Sea at a rate of $465,000. The contract, with OMV Petrom, is slated to begin January 2025 and end July 2026.The Deepwater Skyros was awarded a three-well extension in Angola by TotalEnergies at a

Valeura Energy has announced the mobilization of a Mobile Offshore Production Unit destined for its Nong Yao field while also providing a development drilling update at the Wassana field. Both fields are located offshore Thailand.The company is currently executing a development drilling program on its Wassana field and in light of favorable initial results, has opted to expand the scope of the program from three horizontal wells to five. All three wells drilled so far have encountered their targets in line with expectations.The first two wells have been tested and, in their first seven days of production, resulted in total

Diamondback Energy and Endeavor Energy Resources have entered into a definitive merger agreement valued at approximately $26 billion, inclusive of Endeavor’s net debt. The combination will create a premier Permian independent operator.The transaction consideration will consist of approximately 117.3 million shares of Diamondback common stock and $8 billion of cash, subject to customary adjustments. The cash portion of the consideration is expected to be funded through a combination of cash on hand, borrowings under the company’s credit facility and/or proceeds from term loans and senior notes offerings.“This is a combination of two strong, established companies merging to create a ‘must

TotalEnergies and its partners announced the start of production from the Akpo West field on the PML2 license in Nigeria.Located 135 km off the coast, Akpo West is tied back to the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility, which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 BOE/D in 2023. By mid-2024, Akpo West will add 14,000 barrels of condensate production per day, to be followed by up to 4 million cu m of gas per day by 2028.“After Ikike in 2022, TotalEnergies is pleased to start production of another tie-back project in Nigeria, Akpo West, which will

Borr Drilling announced new contract commitments totaling 495 days and $82.2 million in contract revenue for three of its premium jackup rigs, excluding mobilization and demobilization compensation.The first, BW Energy, has extended its contract for the Norve by approximately two months through July 2024.Additionally, the Mist has secured a contract extension from a subsidiary of Valeura Energy in Thailand. The contract extension covers a firm term of 12 months starting in direct continuation to the current contract and will maintain the rig contracted through August 2025.Lastly, the Thor has received a binding Letter of award from an undisclosed customer for

Tower Resources has been granted an extension of the first exploration period at its Thali production license offshore Cameroon. The company received a formal notification from the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development in Cameroon (MINMIDT) extending the Thali production-sharing contract to 4 February 2025.Its principal obligation during the first exploration period is the drilling of a single well, which the company intends to fulfill through the drilling of the NJOM-3 well. Tower Resources is continuing discussions with several parties regarding asset-level financing for the NJOM-3 well, for which it has contracted the Norve jackup rig with Borr Drilling.Borr

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has granted Neptune Energy Norge AS a drilling permit for well 36/7-5 S in production license 636, cf. Section 13 of the Resource Management Regulations. The permit is for the new exploration well at Duva field in the North Sea.The well will be drilled using Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Yantai harsh-environment semisubmersible rig, with work set to commence in February 2024.（2024-02-07）

Chevron announced its Q4 2023 earnings on 2 February, reporting a figure of $2.3 billion, down from its Q4 2022 number of $6.4 billion – representing a 64.1% decline. The company has attributed the decline to lower upstream realizations, impairment charges, lower margins on refined product sales and decommissioning obligations from previously sold assets.Nonetheless, Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth noted that it “produced more oil and natural gas than any year in the company’s history.” He added, “We also strengthened our portfolio with traditional and new energy acquisitions to help meet the growing demand for affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner