Spartan Offshore has received a further extension from Century Offshore that will now keep jackup Spartan 303 under contract through May 2012. The rig has been working for Century since mid-February.

Hercules Offshore received contract extensions for two jackups recently. First, Hall-Houston extended its deal on the Hercules 212 for two wells in East Cameron Block 160. The rig is currently under tow to the new location, with work expected to keep the rig busy for around 90 days, making it next available for work around the end of January 2012. Pisces Energy has also exercised its option on the Hercules 263. The rig has now arrived on location in South Pelto Block 13 where it is expected to be until mid-December when a 50-day contract with Tana Exploration in set to begin. The Hercules 150 has arrived in Sabine Pass where it will undergo 45-50 days of leg repairs after it suffered a punchthrough trying to get on Tarpon Offshore’s location in West Cameron Block 265. It has not yet been determined if Tarpon will wait for the rig or switch to an alternative unit. The jackup is also scheduled to go to Arena Offshore for a 45-day ...

Hercules Offshore has canceled the remainder of its contract with Great Gulfcan Energy with jackup Hercules 212, and the rig is hot stacked in West Cameron 38. The rig had been working in High Island 98-L and was originally scheduled to complete the work in mid-July, but financial issues with the operator led to the cancellation. Shipyard work on jackup Hercules 120 has not been completed, and now the rig is not expected to return to its contract with Chevron until late June. The rig, which is under contract through the end of 2011, was originally due to return to work May 25. Pisces Energy will now keep jackup Hercules 204 for an additional well in Ship Shoal 151. The operator now has the rig through end-July, after which it will go to Ship Shoal 112 for a 40-day well with Stone Energy. With the extension, the rig is now next available in the first half of September. Finally, inland barge Hercules 17 has secured a follow-up contract with Energy Partners, Ltd. for a 42-day well. Work will begin later this week after the current contract with Marlin Energy is completed. The new work keeps the rig busy to mid-July....

On May 17, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. entered into an agreement whereby the operator will contract newbuild drillships Ocean BlackHawk and Ocean BlackHornet for five-year terms starting in late 2013 and early 2014. The rigs are currently being built at the Hyundai Heavy Industries yard in South Korea. The two contracts will generate a total of $1.8 billion in revenue for Diamond. In addition, both companies agreed to dismiss all claims relating to Anadarko’s 2010 force majeure declaration on semi Ocean Monarch. Diamond disputed the claim, and the two parties had been in discussions for the past several months. Following this announcement on May 19, Diamond reported it had exercised an option with Hyundai Heavy Industries to build a third Gusto P-10000 design drillship at an estimated cost of $614 million. The rig will be rated to drill in up to 12,000 fsw and will have dual activity capability, a seven-ram blowout preventer, and a maximum hookload capacity of 1,250 tons. Delivery of the yet to be named unit is scheduled for the second quarter of 2014. The order now gives Diamond eight rigs that will be able to drill in at least 10,000 fsw.

 ...

Block Mexico state oil giant Pemex has confirmed jackup contract awards for three outstanding tenders, confirming two of the awards March 9 and the third on March 10. For the three-rig Tender 503-11, Noble Drilling won both of the 350-IC requirements, consisting of a 272-day term for the Noble Leonard Jones starting March 19 and a 286-day contract for the Noble Bill Jennings (currently in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico) starting March 21. For the 250-IC portion of the tender, Perforadora Mexico won the 286-day program with its Sonora starting March 20. For the two, 2,000 hp platform rig portion of the bid, the joint venture of China Oilfield Services, Ltd. (COSL) and Goimar SA de CV were the sole bidders. The COSL-1 will undertake the 716-day program starting April 1, while the COSL 2 will work under a 274-day term starting April 2. Both rigs are currently working for Pemex.

In Tender 504-11, which called for three, 300-IC jackups and one 250-IC jackup, Noble Drilling won two of the four awards. The Noble Gene Rosser was confirmed for one of the 300-ft awards, a 248-day program starting April 28, while the Noble Earl Frederickson won the 250-IC contract, ...

Rowan Companies reported net income of $57.3 million on revenues of $458.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2010. That compares to net income of $60.8 million on revenues of $399.8 million for the same period in 2009. For 2010, Rowan had a net income of $280 million on revenues of $1.82 billion versus a net income of $367.5 million on revenues of $1.77 billion in 2009. Ensco, PLC reports it had a net income of $142.9 million on revenues of $408.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to a net income of $248 million on revenues of $497.8 million for the same period in 2009. For 2010, the company generated net income of $579.5 million on revenues of $1.69 billion versus net income of $779.4 million on revenues of $1.89 billion in 2009. Transocean, Ltd. reported a net loss for the three months ended December 31 of $799 million on revenues of $2.16 billion. That compares to net income of $723 million on revenues of $2.733 billion for the same period in 2009. For 2010, the company had net income of $961 million on revenues of $9.576 billion, compared to a 2009 net income of ...

KBR has been selected by Chevron USA, Inc. to execute the detailed design for the Chevron Big Foot Topsides project. The Big Foot field is located in the Walker Ridge 29 in approximately 5,200 feet of water.

Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. announced that its subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Corporation, under which Sumitomo intends to contract up to approximately 1.5 million tons per annum of processing capacity at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.