Pacific Drilling Receives a Letter of Award from Total in Nigeria

May 02, 2011 03:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pacific Drilling S.A. (NOTC: PDSA) announced today that their latest generation drillship, the Pacific Scirocco, has received a Letter of Award from Total E&P

Nigeria Limited, subject to completion of formalities with relevant government agencies in the near future, to perform exploration and development work in Nigeria. The minimum duration of the award is for a one-year initial term at a dayrate of $470,000 plus mobilization and client requested upgrades. The agreement further contemplates two one-year options at Total’s discretion.

“This represents Pacific Drilling’s third commitment from a major oil company, including the two previously announced contracts for the Pacific Santa Ana and the Pacific Bora both contracted to Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico and Nigeria respectively.”

“We are very pleased to announce a new core relationship with Total, a leading deepwater operator, consistent with our vision to work with the best in the industry,” commented Pacific Drilling CEO Chris Beckett. “This represents Pacific Drilling’s third commitment from a major oil company, including the two previously announced contracts for the Pacific Santa Ana and the Pacific Bora both contracted to Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico and Nigeria respectively.”

Pacific Drilling’s fourth ultra-deepwater drillship, the Pacific Mistral, is under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries. The Mistral is on target for on time delivery in May 2011 and is the subject of advanced discussions with various clients. In March 2011 Pacific Drilling ordered two additional drillships from Samsung Heavy Industries, the Pacific Khamsin and the Pacific Sharav, scheduled for delivery in April and September 2013 respectively.
 
About Pacific Drilling

With its best-in-class drillships and highly experienced team, Pacific Drilling is a fast growing company that is dedicated to becoming the preferred ultra-deepwater drilling contractor. Pacific Drilling’s fleet of four of the newest ultra-deepwater drillships is expected to be in operation by the end of 2011, with two additional drillships on order at Samsung for delivery during 2013.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) oil and gas block in Nigeria

LONDON (Dow Jones)--An alliance formed by Polish-owned Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. (KOV.WA) and the local community has won a bid to buy into a Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) oil and gas block in Nigeria for about $800 million, a community leader involved in the deal said late Wednesday.
The deal would be Shell's largest Nigerian divestment so far and set a template to improve relations with

Seawolf enters Nigeria with three oil rigs

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo

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Nigeria’s indigenous offshore drilling contractor, Seawolf Oilservices Limited, has finally made an entry into Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil and gas industry, with three offshore jack-up rigs.

Two of the three jack-up rigs, Seawolf Oritsetimeyin and Seawolf Onome, arrived the Nigerian waters on January 30. They are new builds by the United Arab Emirates-based oil and gas equipment fabrication specialists, Maritime Industrial Services (MIS), valued at a cost of $508 million and they join the third rig, Delta Queen, which has been in the country since last year.

Remi Okunlola, one of the co-founders of the company, gave more insights into the new oil rigs:

“The first of them, Seawolf Onome, is today in the Addax operating location...that’s the first Nigerian-owned rig to ever operate in Nigeria waters and I’m pleased to say that itis the newest jack-up rig in the world and certainly the freshest jack-up rig to ever work in our waters.”

Established in April 2007, the company is co-founded by Adolor Uwanu, an ex-investment banker with Morgan Stanley, and Remi Okunlola, ex-Law partner, Perchstone and Graeys.

Finance controversy

Seawolf Oilservices Limited is financed mainly by Nigerian financial institutions led by First Bank of Nigeria, which has a board representation, and Leadway Assurance Plc, whose managing director, Oye Hassan-Odukale, also doubles as the chairman of the Seawolf’s board. The Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF), a close-end private equity fund, is also a minority investor with 15 percent equity participation.

In the recent past, the oil services firm has been marred in controversy over the source of its financing, its debt exposure, and ownership.

“There are insinuations as to the reason why we were funded other than the business angle but they are all completely wrong. We (my partner and I) were amazed by the non-Nigerianess of the approval. It was approved completely on the strength of the deal. These jack-up rigs are essentially the primary security that the bank has for the investment that was made in us but beyond that, clearly we have a contract,” Mr. Okunlola said.

Major contracts

The contracting of the rigs to operators in the oil and gas industry is a breather for the company. The Delta Queen is currently working for Conoil Producing while the Seawolf Onome is on field test at Addax’ OML 123, offshore Akwa Ibom. The Seawolf Oritsetimeyin, which is currently located at the LADOL base along the Lagos Harbour waiting for contract deployment, has participated in five bids, winning two of them. Contracts negotiations are being finalised, according to the Seawolf.

“We’re hugely leveraged; we borrowed a load of cash from a market that is suffering from a credit crunch. Hence, we want to run this company as a serious venture which is focused on our shareholder value, focussed on growth and development,” Mr. Okunlola added.

The Delta Queen was originally contracted by Norwegian Mosvold Jackup in 2006, while the SeaWolf Oritsetimeyin, and the Seawolf Onome are both Friede and Goldman Super Mod 2 design with 30,000 foot rated drilling depth and an operating water depth capability of 300 feet (92 meters).

The company also said it enjoys huge support from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation’s Nigerian Content Division, and the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) in its bid to get the necessary regulatory licenses and approvals. Reportedly, Seawolf is also getting support from the oil majors, in their efforts to enhance local capacity and increase their local content index.

West Capella Drillship Kicks Off Operations for Total Offshore Nigeria

Seadrill Ltd.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Seadrill West Capella The ultra-deepwater drillship West Capella has commenced operations for Total in Nigeria. West Capella, which was delivered from the Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea end December 2008, arrived offshore Nigeria in West Africa earlier this month and has since arrival prepared for start-up of operations. According to RigLogix, the West Capella will begin working for Total on Usan through March 2012. West Capella is chartered to Total under a five-year contract. The drillship is the second deepwater newbuild delivered to Seadrill that has a long-term contract with Total. The dayrate for the rig is $544,000. With a water depth capacity of 10,000 feet, the West Capella has the capcity to drill to a depth of 37,500 feet. Usan is located in the Gulf of Guinea on OPL 222. Situated in waters ranging from 2,461 to 2,789 feet, the field has proven and probably reserves of 500 MMbo. Expected to commence production in 2012, Usan is being developed through 23 production wells and 19 water and gas injection wells tied-back to the Usan FPSO.

Chevron Secures DrillShip for Nigeria for Agbami field

Pacific Drilling  announces that the Pacific Bora has been contracted to Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, a wholly owned Chevron subsidiary to work on the continued development of the Agbami Field in Nigeria.

Total revenue from the contract is expected to be approximately $586million over the initial three year term. The rig is expected to mobilize to Nigeria in late February upon completion of client requested enhancements to facilitate completion activities.

This represents Pacific Drilling’s second contract with a Chevron subsidiary, including the previously announced contract for the Pacific Santa Ana, which is contracted to provide the first commercial application of Dual Gradient Drilling. Dual gradient techniques use a pump or other method to reduce the hydrostatic head from the mudline to the surface to that of seawater.

Pacific Drilling has two further ultra-deepwater drillships (Pacific Scirocco and Pacific Mistral) under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries, both of which are on target for on time delivery in March 2011 and May 2011 respectively, and are the subject of advanced discussions with various clients.

The “PACIFIC BORA” is an upgraded Samsung 10,000 design dynamically-positioned drillship capable of operating in moderate to harsh environments and water depths up to 3,048 m (10,000 ft) using 18¾” BOP and 21” OD marine drilling riser.

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Source: Pacific Drilling, January  18, 2011;