Offshore driller Atwood Oceanics has won a one-well contract at an undisclosed dayrate for operations offshore Northwest Africa with Kosmos Energy for the ultra-deepwater drillship, the Atwood Achiever.
The new contract will start immediately following the completion of the well in progress under the existing contract and also includes six one-well priced options, Atwood informed on Wednesday.
As a result of this contract, the expected earliest availability of the Atwood Achiever is March 2018, assuming no options are exercised. If all six options were to be exercised, the drilling program would be expected to extend until approximately December 2018, the driller explained.
Rob Saltiel , President and Chief Executive Officer of Atwood Oceanics, commented, “We are pleased to extend our drilling operations for Kosmos Energy in Northwest Africa. Kosmos continues to be a valued client, and we appreciate their confidence in the Atwood Achiever.”
The drillship has been with Kosmos since its delivery in 2014 and Kosmos has been using it for its exploration campaign offshore North and West Africa. The oil company cut the rig’s dayrate but extended the three-year contract by another year in October 2015 . The dayrate was slashed from $595,000 to $495,500.
Lately, the drillship has been working on Kosmos’ acreage offshore Senegal and Mauritania.
Earlier this week, the U.S. independent said it would drill three more wells in the area during this year, starting with Hippocampe well later this month.
The Atwood Achiever is a 6th generation ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned drillship built in 2014. Its capabilities include drilling to total depths of up to 40,000 feet, and in water depths of up to 12,000 feet.
Offshore Energy Today Staff