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Maersk Drilling to work with local partners to strengthen development of local oil and gas industry

Maersk Drilling to work with local partners to strengthen development of local oil and gas industry

Maersk Drilling was recently selected by Total to drill at record water depth in a combined Angola-Namibia campaign, the drilling company announced this week.

Based on the Conditional Letter of Award previously announced in connection with Maersk Drilling’s Q3 2019 Trading Statement, Maersk Drilling was awarded contracts for a three-well exploration drilling project by Total E&P Angola Block 32, Block 48 and Total E and P Namibia B.V. for the 7th generation drillship Maersk Voyager. Maersk Voyager will be employed offshore Angola and Namibia for a campaign which includes the deepest water depth ever drilled offshore.

According to a statement the project includes two wells offshore Angola in Blocks 32 and 48, plus one well offshore Namibia.

The campaign is expected to commence in January, with an estimated duration of 240 days. The total value of the firm contracts is approximately US$46.3 million, including a mobilisation fee. The contracts include two additional one-well options.

The statement said the well in Angola’s Block 48 will be drilled at a new record water depth of 3,628 m. The current world record is 3,400 m, set by Maersk Voyager’s sister drillship Maersk Venturer when it drilled the Raya-1 well for Total offshore Uruguay in 2016.

To support the campaign in Angola and Namibia, Maersk Drilling will be working with local partners for successful outcomes and strengthen the development of the local oil and gas industry to the benefit of all parties involved, they added.

“We are thrilled to once again push beyond existing boundaries in collaboration with Total, drawing upon our mutual experience from the exciting deepwater exploration projects we have collaborated on over the years. In addition, it’s great to be heading back to Angola where we performed a series of successful operations from 2012 to 2016, and to do so in a multi-country campaign which will showcase our ability to quickly and smoothly move operations from one jurisdiction to another,” said COO Morten Kelstrup of Maersk Drilling.

Maersk Voyager is a high-spec ultra-deepwater drillship which was commissioned in 2014. It has recently performed its scheduled Special Periodic Survey in Namibia water after completing campaigns in Ghana and Equatorial Guinea in 2019.


 

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