Market reports indicate ENSCO, plc and Noble Corporation are close to signing long-term floating rig contracts in the Gulf of Mexico. Indications are that BP will charter newbuild drillship ENSCO DS-6 for a multiyear (believed to be five-to-seven years) contract starting in the first-half of 2012. The rig is scheduled for delivery from Samsung Shipyard in South Korea in December. Further rumors are that Noble will sign semi Noble Jim Day to a new multi-year deal with Shell starting in February 2012. The rig is currently working for the operator under a one-year deal that began in February. Shell also has contracts in the Gulf with Noble for semis Noble Danny Adkins, Noble Driller and the Noble Jim Thompson, and is due to pick up newbuild drillships Noble Bully I and Noble Globetrotter I later this year and in early 2012. Details of the new contracts will be reported once they are wrapped up. Meanwhile, BP and Petrobras have finalized a sixmonth sublet of newbuild drillship ENSCO DS-3, and the rig is now underway to Angola. The rig is scheduled to work there until mid-2012, after which it likely will return to the US Gulf. ENSCO’s contract with BP runs ...

Stone Energy Corporation signed an agreement with BP, plc, providing for the acquisition by Stone of BP’s 75% operated working interest in the five block deep water Pompano field in Mississippi Canyon, a 51% operated working interest in the adjacent Mississippi Canyon block 29, a 50% non-operated working interest in the Mica field which ties back to the Pompano platform, and interests in certain deep water exploration leases located in the vicinity of the Pompano field. The purchase price under the agreement is a $204 million cash transaction. The Pompano platform is a fourleg, twelve-pile fixed structure situated in 1,300 feet of water with 23 producing wells and production capacity of 60,000 bopd and 135 mmcfg/d. The acquisition is expected to close by early 2012.

ConocoPhillips’ newly designated Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Lance, has selected three members of his executive management team, including Matt Fox who will become Executive Vice President, Exploration and Production. Alan J. Hirshberg will become Executive Vice President, Technology and Projects and Don E. Wallette, Jr. will become Executive Vice President, Business Development and Commercial.

Chevron Corporation reported its subsidiary, Chevron Brasil Upstream Frade, Ltda., has voluntarily suspended its current and future drilling operations, offshore Brazil. ...

Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc. (TODDI) has filed a motion for summary judgment in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Louisiana requesting the court to force BP to honor its contractual obligation to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Transocean for damages associated with BP’s failure to contain flow from its Macondo well in 2010. Transocean says BP has refused to honor its contractual obligations despite what Transocean says is the industry-standard reciprocal indemnity provisions contained in the drilling contract. The original contract was signed in 1998 and extended several times up to and including in 2009. Language in the contract says BP will “defend, release, protect, indemnify and hold harmless” Transocean for any and all fines, penalties and damages associated with environmental pollution originating from the well “without limit and without regard to the cause or causes” including negligence, “whether such negligence be sole, joint, active, passive or gross.” The motion also asserts that after months of discovery and over 200 witness dispositions, it was clear that no evidence of gross negligence by Transocean existed. BP filed suit against Transocean on the one-year anniversary of the incident, alleging that Transocean personnel had willful and callous disregard for the welfare of ...

Cameron has closed on its purchase of LeTourneau Technologies Drillings Systems and Offshore Products divisions from Joy Global, Inc. for approximately $375 million in cash.

 

EMAS AMC has been awarded a contract by BP Exploration & Production, Inc. to perform subsea work in the Atlantis field located in Green Canyon 743. The project scope consists of the installation and replacement of subsea equipment comprised of manifolds, jumpers and associated hardware in 6,800 feet of water, as well as assisting BP with complete commissioning and start-up activities.

 

Cal Dive International, Inc. has been awarded a $27 million contract by Pemex for the installation of an 8 inch subsea pipeline located in the Abkatun Field. The offshore construction is expected to commence in April 2012.

BP, PLC announced the drilling of a successful appraisal well in a previously untested northern segment of the Mad Dog field. The well, drilled by BHP Billiton on behalf of unit operator BP, is located on Green Canyon Block 738 in about 4,500 ft of water. The well encountered about 166 net ft of hydrocarbons in the objective Miocene sands and discovered an oil column of more than 300 ft. Pending confirmation, total hydrocarbons in place in the field are now estimated at 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Royal Dutch Shell, PLC has awarded Tyco International, Ltd.’s flow control unit an enterprise framework agreement to provide butterfly valves to Shell globally. The five-year agreement covers more than 2,500 of Tyco’s highly engineered butterfly valves for use in projects, maintenance repair operations, and turnaround applications.

 

Halliburton filed claims against BP, PLC in Texas state court last week for negligent misrepresentation, business disparagement, and defamation related to the April 20, 2010, Macondo rig disaster and subsequent oil spill. Halliburton has also moved to amend its claims against BP in the multi-district litigation in New Orleans, Louisiana, to include fraud.