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 ...

Reports are that Rowan Companies newbuild jackup Rowan EXL-IV may have a signed contract in place by the end of this week. While the potential customer is not known, market intelligence indicates Apache Corporation could be the operator getting the rig. The LeTourneau Super 116-E design rig, delivered from the Keppel AmFELS yard in Brownsville, Texas, on September 1, is currently undergoing systems testing while waiting on work and is expected to leave the yard in October.

 

Hall-Houston Exploration finally received its permit and now has jackup Hercules 212 on location in High Island Block 205. The ADTI turnkey well is expected to take around 30 days to complete. Meanwhile, jackup Hercules 214 has wrapped up operations for Apache Corporation in Main Pass Block 69 and is now on standby while it waits for its next contract to begin. That work will be for Phoenix Exploration Company, LP in nearby Main Pass Block 59 on a job that was switched from jackup Hercules 253. That rig is also on standby in West Cameron Block 38 while it waits to begin a threewell, 120-day contract with Hall-Houston, now expected to be in early October. Tana Exploration Company, LLC will then ...

Transocean Services AS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Transocean, Ltd., has announced an all-cash, voluntary offer for all Aker Drilling ASA shares for NOK 26.50 per share. Aker Drilling’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer. The offer price indicates an equity market capitalization of about NOK 7.93 billion, or $1.43 billion, assuming an exchange rate of NOK 5.53 to U.S. $1.00. This represents a 62% premium to Aker Drilling’s 30-day average price of NOK 16.39 per share. Additionally, Aker Drilling has net debt of $0.80 billion. Aker Drilling operates two harsh-environment, ultra-deepwater, sixth-generation semisubmersible rigs currently on long-term contract to Statoil ASA and Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA in Norway. Aker Drilling currently is expected to take delivery in 2013 of two sixth-generation drillships currently under construction at the DSME shipyard in South Korea.

 

ENSCO has signed contract extensions for two of its Gulf of Mexico jackups. First, Apache Corporation will keep the ENSCO 86 for another 120 days from the end of August. The rig is currently working in South Marsh Island Block 281 under the current term, which began May 1. Arena Energy has agreed to keep the ENSCO 90 for an additional two wells in ...

Global Industries, Ltd. announced the deepwater derrick/pipelay vessel Global 1200 completed its initial project in Dubai and is currently mobilizing to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The company has secured a significant project in Mexico which will utilize the vessel beginning in late 2011 and continuing into 2012.

 

Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. reported its well intervention revenues increased in the second quarter of 2011 due primarily to increased utilization of our vessels in both the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Vessel utilization in the Gulf of Mexico increased to 93% in the second quarter of 2011 from 88% in the first quarter of 2011.

 

McDermott International, Inc. announced one of its subsidiaries has been awarded a fabrication contract by Shell Offshore, Inc., for the West Delta 143 “C” deck, jacket, piles, and bridge.

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.

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Energy Partners, Ltd. (EPL) has executed an agreement to acquire producing oil and natural gas assets in the shallow water central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) shelf from Anglo-Suisse Offshore Partners, LLC for $201.5 million. The assets are producing approximately 3,000 boe/d, consisting of 92 percent oil. The properties include three main complexes and field areas in Main Pass blocks 296, 301, and 311, South Pass blocks 33 and 49, and West Delta blocks 26, 27, 28, 29, and 47.