Hyperdynamics Corporation’s subsidiary, SCS Corporation Ltd. (SCS), and South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO) are proceeding with the preparation to spud the Fatala-1 well off Guinea with an estimated spud date by the end of next month.
In late May, Pacific Drilling-owned drillship Pacific Scirocco entered Guinea shelf waters. The contract for the drillship was amended, stipulating the rates and timing related to installing some drilling-related equipment, stocking up materials and supplies for spudding of the Fatala-1 well.
In an update on Monday, Hyperdynamic said the Pacific Scirocco has been re-fueled and is returning to Guinea with an estimated time of arrival of June 27.
The company also said that the operations team of SCS Corporation attached to Guinea is being deployed and contracting of helicopter and support vessel services has been completed. Well tubulars for Fatala-1 have been stored in Port of Conakry to be loaded on board Pacific Scirocco. Schlumberger has started mobilization of materials, equipment and well drilling-related field staff in its role as Integrated Project Manager for the major well drilling services.
Further, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to be used to spud the well has been loaded onto a vessel in Aberdeen along with the wellhead running tools to start sailing this week to the Pacific Scirocco in Guinea with an estimated arrival date of around July 10-14.
The Drilling Well On Paper (DWOP) exercise will be held by SCS in Conakry July 14-15 with participation of all major contractors, SAPETRO and ONAP, (the Guinea Petroleum Bureau) to review the drilling plan and preparedness of all parties as a final planning step prior to spudding the well.
The company added that, once the ROV has been installed and tested and the drilling equipment and materials have been loaded onto the drillship, the Pacific Scirocco will be moving to the Fatala-1 location with a planned spud by the end of July.
“We are very pleased with the preparation for the drilling of Fatala -1 and with the performance of the contractors. All the elements needed for the spudding of an ultra-deepwater well in a frontier location are coming together nicely,” said Ray Leonard , Hyperdynamics’ President and Chief Executive Officer.
“Concurrently our geological team in Houston has made further progress evaluating the prospects of the Bamboo area and identified a location for the second well. Both geological and operational progress is going to be reviewed in detail during the upcoming meeting to be held with partners and ONAP in Conakry 12-13 July,” explained Leonard.