Northern Ocean, whose semi-submersible rig (the Deepsea Bollsta) has been contracted to carry out an oil discovery appraisal, says it has began its contract with Shell Upstream Namibia, a subsidiary of Shell.
The three-well exploration and appraisal drilling campaign offshore Namibia will be centred on the oil major’s Graff oil and gas discovery.
The local unit of the British multinational oil and gas company, operates PEL 0039 with a 45% working interest, together with QatarEnergy (45%) and National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (10%). PEL 0039 covers approximately 12,000km² in deep water offshore Namibia.
Ocean’s semi-submersible Deepsea Bollsta, which was chartered by Shell on a 12-month contract valued at N$2.1 billion and has an option to extend the deal for a further six months, has arrived in the Namibian waters.
“We look forward to delivering more significant milestones for Shell as we embark on this drilling campaign, and expect to continue strengthening the relationship with the manager and the client,” Northern Ocean CEO Scott McReaken said.
The 2020-built Deepsea Bollsta sixth-generation semi-submersible rig is of Moss CS60E design and can accommodate 140 people. The rig can carry out operations in both benign and harsh environments at water depths of up to 3,000 metres.
After being awarded the contract in late August, Northern Ocean raised N$678 million (US$40 million) to fund the harsh environment semi-sub’s reactivation cost.
The Shell exploration activity comes after the company immediately drilled a follow-up well called La Rona, which — unlike with Graff — did not reveal the results according to Upstream.
According to Northern Ocean, its rig will also have to drill in waters up to 2,400 metres deep, which implies one or more wells will be spudded to the west of Graff.
The discovery well lies in 2,000 metres of water, some 270 kilometres from Oranjemund and was drilled to a total depth of 5,376 metres.
