Tracy Dulle • Houston
Murmanskaya gets new assignment
Exxon Neftegas Ltd. has terminated its contract with Beta Drilling for deployment of Aban Offshore’sMurmanskaya jackup for a two-well program offshore Russia, which was expected to begin in June 2008.
Aban says it has since received a letter of intent for a one-well contract with Husky Oil China Ltd. forMurmanskaya for a period of about 50 days. The estimated revenues from the contract are $10.53 million.
Pride sells platform rig fleet
Pride International has sold its fleet of platform rigs and related equipment to Blake International for $66 million in cash.
The platform rig fleet consists of eight units in the Gulf of Mexico, four under contract in the US, two in Mexico, and two units previously retired from service.
Global Offshore & Lewek Shipping award contracts to Keppel
Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd. has secured two contracts worth S$210 million ($154 million).
The first contract was awarded by Global Offshore International Ltd. for a derrick pipelay vessel.
The second contract, for a 100-m (328-ft) Rolls-Royce designed UT 788 CDL ultra deepwater multi-functional support vessel (MFSV), was awarded by Lewek Shipping Pte Ltd. The owner will furnish the ship equipment.
Transocean secures five-year deal for newbuild drillship
A Transocean subsidiary has been awarded a five-year drilling contract for an enhanced Enterprise-class newbuild drillship. The contract is expected to begin in 4Q 2010, following shipyard construction, sea trials, mobilization, and customer acceptance.
Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. will build the dynamically positioned, double-hull drillship. Construction is scheduled for Daewoo’s yard in Okpo, South Korea, where four of Transocean’s previously announced enhanced Enterprise-class drillships are being built. The total capital cost for the drillship is estimated to be $730 million, excluding capitalized interest.
Lamprell announces $26 million in rig contracts
During March and April 2008, Lamprell secured contracts from several clients to undertake eight jackup upgrade and refurbishment projects. These projects for Maersk Contractors, Aban Pte Ltd., Rowan Companies Inc., Diamond Offshore Drilling Ltd., Transocean Offshore International Ventures Ltd., Transocean Mediterranean and Red Sea Drilling Ltd., and Hercules Offshore Middle East Ltd. will be executed at Lamprell’s Sharjah and Hamriyah facilities.
The combined initial contract value is $25.8 million, with the final account value conservatively forecast to be between $50 million and $55 million, as significant work scope growth is anticipated on several of the projects.
Venture, Sevan extend contract for second floater
Venture Production and Sevan Marine ASA have extended an existing contract for the provision of a second cylinder-shaped FPSO.
Previously, Venture and Sevan have contracted for the FPSOSevan Hummingbird, a Sevan 300 FPSO which has been installed and is being commissioned on the Chestnut field in the UK central North Sea.
Sevan Hummingbird at Keppel Verolme Shipyard in Rotterdam.
The second Sevan 300 FPSO going to Venture will be based on Sevan’s patented technology. Among the advantages Sevan expects from the cylindrical FPSOs are higher uptime and lower operating costs.
Under the revised contract, Venture may deploy the Sevan 300 on any of its fields in the North Sea. The process modules will be designed by Kanfa AS, Sevan’s wholly owned subsidiary.
Stena awards Samsung $942-million drillship order
Stena Drilling Ltd. has awarded Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) a $942-million contract to build a drillship.
This drillship will be 228 m (656 ft) long by 42 m (138 ft) wide by19 m (62 ft) high, and will displace 97,000 tons (88,000 metric tons). After 44 months of construction, the drillship is scheduled for delivery to the North Sea in December 2011.
The ship’s hull is 4 cm (1.6 in.) thick and designed to enable stable operation through floating ice in the Arctic Ocean. Every facility is warmed.
With a dynamic positioning system, this ship also can maintain position automatically in severe weather, including waves of up to 16 m (52 ft) and wind speeds of up to 41 m per second (92 mph), says Stena.
ABS previews new Guide for Floating Production Installations
ABS introduced its newGuide for Floating Production Installations during its ABS Offshore Structure Assessment Program seminar in Houston.
ABS will adopt new structural requirements for the analysis of FPSOs. The new requirements apply FPSO-specific loading conditions and prescribe strength assessment procedures to be followed.
Continuing demand for single and double hull tanker conversions, specialized environmental loads and operational loading conditions, and the structural and loads interface between the much larger and heavier topsides production facilities and the hull were among the many issues that spurred the decision by ABS to re-evaluate the rules that specifically apply to FPSOs.
The new guide will require hull girder ultimate strength evaluation and finite element analysis as part of the tanker conversion to FPSO requirements to receive Class. A team of hydrodynamic and structural engineers has been working on criteria development and validation, addressing inspection and repair load cases, refining operational loading conditions, revising fatigue assessment to include low cycle fatigue, developing a new topside and hull interaction analysis procedure, and a new position mooring and hull interface analysis procedure.
The new guide is going through the review process and will be released soon.
