Spanish oil company Repsol is getting ready to start drilling an exploration well offshore Aruba, a small island nation located off the coast of Venezuela.
The drillship to be used for the operation has already reached the island’s waters. According to Seadrill, the owner of the drillship called the West Capella, the drilling is expected to start next month.
Repsol signed a $6.4 million deal to hire the drillship for the Aruba well in March this year. The drillship was previously successfully used by the Spanish company in Gabon, where it made an oil discovery in April. The well in Aruba will also target an oil prospect.
The West Capella is a 6th generation ultra-deepwater drillship of Samsung 10,000 design, built by Samsung Heavy Industries in 2008.
Aruba, the country with a population of 115,120 people, does not produce oil. Tourism accounts for a majority of economic activity; as of 2017, over 2.0 million tourists visited Aruba annually, with the large majority (80-85%) of those from the US, according to the CIA Factbook.
Offshore Energy Today Staff