Erin Energy hires Pacific Bora drillship for Oyo drilling

Oil company Erin Energy has executed a drilling services contract with Pacific Drilling for the use of the Pacific Bora drillship offshore Nigeria.

The drillship was hired for drilling operations on the Oyo-9 deepwater well offshore Nigeria, Erin Energy said on Monday.

Under the conditions of the contract, the drillship will work under a base operating rate of $195,000 per day. Also, the company has the option to drill up to two additional wells off Nigeria. If exercised, the option would be used to drill two additional exploration prospects in the prolific Miocene geological zone.

Erin Energy anticipates spudding the Oyo-9 in mid-June and first production from the well to be in September 2017. The Oyo-9 is expected to add an additional 6,000 to 7,000 barrels per day to current production.

Jean-Michel Malek, Interim CEO, said: “The execution of this rig contract is an important step in advancing our 2017 work program and our development of the Oyo field in the deepwater offshore Nigeria.”

As far as Nigerian assets go, Erin Energy has a 100 percent interest in offshore Oil Mining Leases 120 and 121. The OML 120 contains the Oyo Field which is located some 75 kilometers (46 miles) from the coast in water depths ranging from 200 to 500 meters. The Oyo field started production in December 2009, and the wells are connected to the Armada Perdana FPSO.

The sixth generation double-hulled drillship is expected to be mobilized to the Oyo field and on site in June 2017. Pacific Drilling’s latest fleet status report from January 2017 shows that the previous contract for the Pacific Bora was agreed with Folawiyo AJE Services Limited (FASL), also in Nigeria. The contract for two firm wells and one option well started in January 2017 with a dayrate of $195,000.

According to the latest AIS data, the rig is currently at anchor in the Gulf of Guinea. It is unclear if the rig is still working for FASL as its availability date estimated it to be free at the beginning of the second quarter 2017.

Although its contracts now revolve around Nigeria, the drillship was first booked to work for Hyperdynamics off Guinea in 2Q 2017 but the parties later agreed to replace it with the Pacific Scirocco instead. Hyperdynamics’ Fatala-1 well is expected to be spud in April 2017.

Offshore Energy Today Staff