Industry News

Karoon Energy has exercised options to drill as many as two additional wells at the Neon field offshore Brazil with the Maersk Developer semisubmersible. The contract extension has a duration of 80 days, in direct continuation of the rig’s previous work scope. The contract extension has a firm contract value of approximately $21 million.“We’re delighted to confirm this extension which will expand Maersk Developer’s activities in Brazil to include assisting Karoon in the further evaluation of the Neon discovery. During our preparations for the initial Baúna work scope, the Developer team has established a strong and close collaboration in our

Valaris announced new contracts and contract extensions, with an associated contract backlog of $181 million. Among them, BP awarded the company two-year contract extensions in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) for the managed rigs Mad Dog and Thunder Horse. The contract extensions were effective 27 January.Valaris also received a one-well contract extension from Total Energies for the drillship VALARIS DS-15 offshore Brazil. The option well is in direct continuation of the current firm program and has an estimated duration of 100 days.ARO Drilling awarded a three-year contract with Saudi Aramco for the standard duty modern jackup VALARIS 140. This

Saipem has been awarded new contracts for drilling offshore the Middle East and West Africa for a total amount of more than $400 million.Two contracts have been awarded in the Middle East for two high specification jackups, consisting of drilling and workover operations for a duration of five years. The start of operations is scheduled for Q4 2022.Each contract includes options for two additional years. These projects will involve one Saipem jackup and a new high specification jackup chartered from CIMC Group for the project.Another contract was awarded by Eni for a drilling campaign offshore West Africa, with operations expected

Maersk Drilling has been awarded contracts with Shell for the Maersk Voyager drillship for drilling services offshore multiple countries. The contracts are expected to commence in April 2022 and last for one year. The total contract value is approximately $107.5 million. The contracts include an additional one-year option.As part of the deals, Maersk Drilling and Shell have agreed to implement the RigFlow solution delivered by Maersk Drilling subsidiary Horizon56. RigFlow standardizes and digitalizes the core workflows involved in well construction, including real-time exchange of information between onshore planning units, the offshore drilling teams, and the service companies supporting the operations.“This

Nabors Industries added to its clean energy portfolio with an $8 million investment in geothermal technology company GA Drilling.GA Drilling is a pioneer in plasma drilling. By integrating its iPLASMABIT drilling tool into Nabors’ automated and lower-emission drilling operations, the collaboration aims to accelerate field commercialization and eliminate traditional economic barriers of ultradeep projects to expand global access to geothermal energy. This agreement complements the pre-series investment round recently concluded by GA Drilling, with the total value of those new investments exceeding $20 million.GA Drilling joins Nabors’ geothermal ecosystem, which is comprised of three other prior venture investments in geothermal

Shell announced the start of production at PowerNap, a subsea development in the US Gulf of Mexico with an estimated peak production of 20,000 BOED. PowerNap is a tieback to the Shell-operated Olympus production hub in the prolific Mars Corridor.“Shell has been producing in the Mars Corridor for more than 25 years, and we continue to find ways to unlock even more value there,” said Zoe Yujnovich, Shell Upstream Director. “PowerNap strengthens a core upstream position that is critical to achieving our ‘Powering Progress’ strategy and ensuring we can supply the stable, secure energy resources the world needs today and

Murphy Oil and its partners ExxonMobil and Enauta Energia announced that drilling has concluded at the Cutthroat-1 exploration well in block SEAL-M-428 in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin offshore Brazil.While the presence of hydrocarbons was not found, the partner group will continue to integrate the exploration well data into its regional subsurface interpretation efforts to better understand the exploration potential of its deep water blocks in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin.Cutthroat-1 is located nearly 90 km offshore Brazil and was drilled in 3,094 m of water by Seadrill’s West Saturn drillship. It is one of multiple prospects that the partner group has mapped in

Santos announced the Pavo-1 exploration well has confirmed a significant oil discovery 46 km east of the Dorado field in the Bedout Sub-basin, offshore Western Australia.The well was drilled on the northern culmination of the greater Pavo structure and encountered a 60-m gross hydrocarbon column in the primary Caley member reservoir target. Wireline data has confirmed 46 m of net oil pay, with an oil-water contact intersected at 3,004-m measured depth (MD). Excellent reservoir quality is interpreted from logs with 19% average porosity, permeabilities in the 100- to 1,000-millidarcy range and hydrocarbon saturations averaging 80%, similar to that encountered in