Deepwater drilling contractor Ocean Rig on Monday, March 7, 2016, signed a drilling contract for one of its semi-submersible drilling rigs, the Leiv Eiriksson, with Lundin Norway. The drilling contract is for a minimum of 3 wells, for drilling offshore Norway, with an estimated backlog of approximat
Rosneft Vietnam B.V., a company of Russia’s Rosneft group, has started drilling the exploration well PLDD-1X at Block 06.1, in the Nam Con Son basin, located offshore Vietnam. This is Rosneft’s first drilling project as an operator in the international waters. The design depth of the well will be ar
Ocean Rig, an international contractor of offshore deepwater drilling services, has posted a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2015 due to impairment charges. The drilling contractor on Tuesday posted a net loss of $174.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to a profit of $87.5 million
Severe weather has caused trouble for the oil major Shell’s drilling operations offshore Nova Scotia. Namely, a piece of equipment connecting a rig to the well during drilling fell to the seabed. The incident occurred on Saturday, March 5, on the 228-meter DP class 3 drillship Stena IceMAX, owned by
Norwegian workers’ unions demanded a meeting with the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy over Statoil’s termination and suspension of COSLInnovator and COSLPromoter contracts, respectively, warning that 600 jobs could be lost. To remind, Norwegian oil company Statoil terminated a contract wi
Mexico’s state oil company Pemex has increased a dayrate for one of Paragon Offshore’s drilling rigs in Mexico. In the company’s fleet status report for March, Paragon, an offshore drilling contractor, said that Pemex boosted the dayrate for the jack-up rig Paragon M842 from $70,000 to $112,000 for
Offshore drilling contractor Transocean announced on Tuesday a mutual agreement with Keppel Offshore & Marine’s shipyard, Keppel FELS, to defer the delivery and related payments of five high-specification jack-ups until 2020. According to the drilling contractor, the Super B 400 Bigfoot Class jack-u
Byron Energy, the operator of several blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, has encountered three hydrocarbon bearing sands and is drilling ahead at its SM-6 #2 located in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Byron started drilling the SM-6 #2 well in mid-February 2016 using the Hercules 205 jack-up drilling rig. Byron
China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL), a parent company of COSL Drilling Europe, is thinking about taking legal action against Statoil after the oil company terminated a rig contract it had with COSL Drilling. To remind, the Norwegian oil company Statoil cancelled a contract with COSL Drilling for
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes announced on Monday that the international offshore rig count in February 2016 was down both sequentially, and year over year. The international rig count includes rigs from Latin America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific. According to Baker Hughes
Norwegian oil company Statoil has terminated a contract for one COSL rig and suspended another one. Statoil has on behalf of the Troll licence, located in the North Sea offshore Norway, decided to use its contractual right to terminate the contract with COSL Offshore Management for the chartering o
Prosafe, an owner and operator of semi-submersible accommodation vessels also known as flotels, has informed that Pemex will suspend a contract for one flotel, and it is also likely the company will suspend a contract for another flotel. According to Prosafe’s statement on Monday, Petróleos Mexicano
Lundin Petroleum is in the process of concluding the drilling of wildcat well 16/4-10, on the Fosen prospect, offshore Norway. The well is dry. The company started drilling the exploration well in January 2016. The well 16/4-10 was drilled by the Island Innovator semi-submersible drilling rig. Accor
National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC), a provider of drilling services and a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company, is looking to attract $200 million in investment to buy offshore drilling rigs. According to Shana, a news agency, NIDC was in negotiations with domestic and foreign investors
