India’s offshore drilling contractor Aban Offshore has suspended operations on one of its jack-up drilling rigs due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
In a short statement released through a stock exchange on Monday, Aban Offshore said: “We hereby inform you that one of our rigs Aban IV has suspended operations owing to the outbreak of Covid-19”.
The update from the drilling contractor comes as India is struggling to battle the surge of Covid-19 cases with its healthcare system at a breaking point.
According to the latest report by Al Jazeera , India on Tuesday confirmed more than 20 million coronavirus infections in the official total, though the figure is believed to be a vast undercount. Al Jazeera also said that 357,229 new cases had been reported over the last 24 hours.
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is the second time for Aban to suspend operations on the Aban IV rig in less than a month.
Namely, the rig owner had suspended the Aban IV on 7 April and operations resumed on 17 April.
In the meantime, another Aban jack-up, Aban III, was suspended on 13 April. This rig returned to operations on 24 April.
The Aban IV is a jack-up self -elevating drilling unit and an independent leg cantilever of a Baker Marine 300-IC design built in 1983. The rig received a major upgrade of engines to Caterpiller 3516-B in 1999 at Dubai Drydocks.
Aban Offshore’s fleet status report shows that the Aban IV is under contract with ONGC, operating off the West Coast of India.