Essar Oil buys Transocean Wildcat
Offshore staff
MUMBAI, India -- Essar Oil Ltd. has purchased the Transocean Wildcat semisubmersible from Mike Mullen and re-named it the Essar Wildcat. Norscot Rig Management Pvt. Ltd. of Mauritius has been awarded the O&M contract to refurbish, upgrade, manage, and operate the rig on a three-year HP/HT contract to Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. The rig will work off India's East coast on a contract beginning May/June 2007.
TheEssar Wildcat is the first semisubmersible drilling rig to be owned by an Indian company, and Norscot has assisted in negotiating the purchase and the contract, which is the highest value drilling contract awarded to any rig in India at $357,000/day, the company says.
Norscot is upgrading the rig in Invergordon, Scotland. The semi will have a new Cameron 15,000 psi BOP, which is being built in Singapore by company Subsea Fluids Pte Ltd., and South West Oilfield Products Inc., which is upgrading the mud system and mud pumps to 7,500 psi.
Essar Oil Ltd. subsidiary Essar Oilfields Services is building its rig fleet and has bought seven land rigs through Norscot Trading (India) Pvt. Ltd., which also negotiated long-term leasing contracts for these rigs with Prest SA to Petrobras in Brazil through its subsidiary Norscot Oil & Gas (Brasil) SA. Norscot Oil & Gas (Brasil) is refurbishing and upgrading these rigs with top drives, etc. before beginning contracts with Petrobras.
1/30/2007