Eni’s Nigerian subsidiary Agip Exploration has chartered Pacific Drilling’s Pacific Bora drillship for drilling operations offshore Nigeria.
The contract, for one firm well, is valued $9 million. Agip will have two additional option wells. According to Pacific Drilling, the contract is expected to start in mid to late November 2018.
To remind, the contract follows a letter of intent signed between the two companies, as announced in August, when Pacific Drilling said the well would take approximately 90 days of work, at a dayrate of $150,000, meaning the firm contract would be $13.5 million.
It’s unclear if the drilling duration is still expected to be the same, but if it is, it means that the dayrate has been lowered to $100.000. Offshore Energy Today has reached out to Pacific Drilling seeking more info on the dayrate. We’ll update the article if we get a response.
In the meantime, David Carter Shinn, Partner at Bassoe Offshore, thinks the dayrate is unchanged: “We still estimate a dayrate of about $150k for this contract. What likely happened is that they have reduced the estimated days to complete the well.”
Related: Pacific Drilling could soon have five rigs drilling simultaneously
Pacific Drilling Chief Executive Officer Paul Reese said: “On the heels of our previous announcement of new work for Pacific Santa Ana in Mauritania, we are pleased to have secured this contract for the Bora which reflects our substantial experience in Nigeria and our uninterrupted commitment to providing exceptional drilling services to our clients.”
The Pacific Bora is currently located offshore Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The drilling rig is a sixth generation deepwater, dynamically-positioned drillship capable of operating in water depths up to 10,000 feet and drilling wells more than 37,000 feet deep.
SOURCE: OFFSHORE ENERGY TODAY
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