With the latest flurry of E&P deals (Statoil-Brigham, Kinder Morgan’s impending sale of El Paso E&P)—and still more to come—what might be the impacts of M&A action would be to unconventional drilling? The Unconventional Drilling Report compared rig counts pre- and post-deals for other recent E&P deals focused primarily on unconventional plays and concluded:  Not much. ExxonMobil’s U.S. land rig count has scarcely budged since it acquired XTO, averaging 68 vs. their pre-acquisition tallies of 7 and 64, respectively. Post-acquisition Chevron has averaged 20 rigs since closing on Atlas vs. their respective pre-deal averages of 8 and 7. BHP has averaged 25 after closing on Petrohawk vs. pre-deal average tallies of 2 and 18, respectively. The biggest post-deal traction for bolstering rig counts has come not from outright acquisitions but from joint venture deals, namely Chesapeake’s, whose rig count jumped from a pre-JV 120 to an average 140 since the last JV closed (and recently peaked at 154). It will climb still further after an imminent JV closes on Chesapeake’s Utica Shale acreage. 

Noble Corporation has exercised an option with Hyundai Heavy Industries for the construction of an ultra-deepwater drillship, the fourth ordered this year by the company. The rig, which has not yet been named, is based on the Hyundai Gusto P10000 hull design and will be outfitted to drill in up to 10,000 ft of water but will be capable of operating in up to 12,000-ft water depths. Construction cost, including turnkey construction contract, company-furnished equipment, project management and spares, is expected to be $630 million, and delivery is scheduled for the second half of 2014. The rig will be equipped with two complete BOP systems and a DP-3 stationkeeping system and will provide accommodations for 210 personnel. Noble does not currently have a contract in place for the rig.

 

ENSCO, PLC has received a short contract from Cimarex Energy Co. for idle jackup ENSCO 81. The rig is expected to move to location in South Timbalier Block 265 in about a week, with the 17-day P&A keeping the rig working through the end of the month. The rig has been idle in South Timbalier Block 28 since early August after completing a contract for Walter Oil & Gas Corporation....

FMC Technologies, Inc. has signed an agreement with Statoil for the manufacture and supply of subsea workover adapters. The award has a value of approximately $43 million. Separately, the company signed an agreement with Shell Development (Australia) Pty., Ltd. to supply subsea production and associated topside systems for the Prelude field development. The companies also announced an aftermarket agreement that will result in FMC performing installation and commissioning services for the project.

 

McDermott International, Inc. announced the award of a significant subsea contract to its Australian subsidiary for a deepwater offshore engineering and construction project, including structural transportation and installation of subsea infrastructure. The new contract for work offshore Western Australia is included in the company’s second quarter 2011 backlog.

 

The Helix Well Containment Group announced that it is now capable to respond to a subsea well containment incident in water depths of up to 10,000 ft. The consortium previously announced its intention to achieve this milestone by mid-summer and has achieved this ahead of schedule. Previously, it had capabilities to operate in water depths of up to 8,000 ft.

 

Schlumberger announced the acquisition of the remaining equity shares of Framo Engineering AS from Frank Mohn AS. ...

Jackup ENSCO 99 has completed its contract with ExxonMobil Corporation in Galveston Block 209 and is now moving off the location. The rig will next move to West Cameron Block 317, where it will undergo a flag change and UWILD inspections, which will take 7–10 days. While no follow-up contract is yet in place, Ensco expects to have at least one deal signed shortly. Details of that work will be reported once they are finalized. Spud can inspections in West Delta Block 122 have been completed on jackup ENSCO 87, and the rig has now moved to Main Pass Block 315, where it has another week of leg liner repairs to finish before it returns to work under its contract with Apache Corporation. The rig is operating under a 9-month extension with Apache that began January 1.

 

Jackup Noble Johnnie Hoffman has left Brownsville, Texas, for Mexico, where it will begin a 590-day contract with Pemex on May 22. With the departure, Noble Drilling has only the jackup Noble Sam Noble remaining in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and with the company planning on bidding the unit in a currently outstanding Pemex tender, it very likely could end up ...

The Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) announced that its membership has grown to 10 members at the conclusion of the company’s formation period. The MWCC member companies are now Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Apache, Anadarko, BHP Billiton, Statoil and Hess. These 10 companies operated approximately 70 percent of deepwater wells drilled in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico between 2007 through 2009.

 

McDermott International, Inc. announced that one of its subsidiary companies was awarded fabrication and installation work from Chevron U.S.A., Inc. to support the development of the Jack and St. Malo fields.

Statoil has started oil production at the large Peregrino field offshore Brazil. Production will gradually ramp up to 100,000 boe/d. The first phase of the development includes two drilling and wellhead platforms and a large FPSO. The Peregrino field is located offshore Brazil in the Campos basin in 328 ft of water.