Malaysian oil company Petronas has selected Danish drilling rig operator Maersk Drilling’s deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig Maersk Developer for work off the coast of Suriname.
The contract is for a one-well exploration campaign in Block 52 offshore Suriname. Maersk Developer rig was contracted by Petronas subsidiary Petronas Suriname Exploration & Production (PSEPBV).
Expected to start in third / fourth quarter this year, the contract work is expected to last for a period of 75 days. The contract value, which is priced at $20.4m, includes integrated drilling services, as well as mobilisation and demobilisation fees. Maersk Drilling COO Morten Kelstrup said: “It is great to work for Petronas again with a quick reactivation of Mærsk Developer for this campaign in the exciting Suriname-Guyana basin.
“This will showcase our ability to smoothly and efficiently establish operations in new jurisdictions as Mærsk Developer will become the first of our rigs to operate offshore Suriname.”
Capable of operating at water depths of up to 10,000ft, the Maersk Developer is a DSS-21 column-stabilised semi-submersible rig. The rig is currently ‘warm-stacked’ in Aruba of the Southern Caribbean after ending its contract offshore Trinidad and Tobago.
Recently, Maersk Drilling announced that it is joining a new carbon dioxide (CO?) storage consortium formed by Wintershall Dea and INEOS Oil & Gas Denmark. Last month, Maersk Drilling confirmed the anticipated layoffs at its global onshore offices, including its headquarters in Denmark.