OIL AND GAS industry solutions provider AGR has signed a Master Well Services Contract and a Service Order with Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (Chevron).
Under these agreements, AGR will provide Dual Gradient Drilling (DGD) offshore operational services for Chevron’s deepwater Gulf of Mexico programme for up to five years, starting this year.
The announcement comes as AGR’s existing four year contract for DGD Project Management and Engineering Services moves towards a close later this year, with the testing and load-out of the world’s first Dual Gradient Drilling system for use on a deepwater drillship.
The Pacific Santa Ana drillship – owned by Pacific Drilling – will be operational for Chevron in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico this year, following the successful installation of the custom-built DGD system on the rig.
Houston-based Terry Scanlon, AGR’s Senior Vice President of the Enhanced Drilling Solutions (EDS) division (Americas) , said: “Working on the deepwater DGD system’s design and manufacturing phases has been a challenging and rewarding experience alongside Chevron and the other key members of the programme.
“We very much appreciate Chevron’s signing of this five year services contract that now allows us to move to offshore operational status in 2012, on this industry leading project. We are now preparing our offshore technical services team and offshore operational procedures, ready for the transition to well operations later this year.”
Under the agreement, Chevron will use AGR’s specialised technical services and the Chevron-owned DGD system as an enabling technology on complex deep-zone wells in its large deepwater Gulf of Mexico portfolio.
AGR’s Executive Vice President of the Enhanced Drilling Solutions division, David Hine , said: “The Chevron DGD development is a world’s first. We are proud to have led the engineering management phase together with Chevron and to have now secured the opportunity to deliver the Offshore Operations and Maintenance phase over the next few years.
“On the premise of improved efficiency, it is becoming increasingly apparent that DGD related services will have an important place in the future of offshore drilling for difficult deepwater and deep zone wells.”
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Subsea World News Staff , June 19, 2012; Image: Pacific Drilling