Island Drilling secures more work for its rig’s upcoming gig in Africa

Norwegian offshore rig operator Island Drilling Company has received a third contract extension for its semi-submersible rig from Trident Energy related to work offshore Equatorial Guinea.

Island Drilling’s Island Innovator rig was hired by Trident Energy in September 2022 for two firm and five optional wells. Trident exercised two of these options for development drilling and workover in July 2023, adding another 85 days to the contracted work in Equatorial Guinea.

According to the rig owner, Trident Energy has now exercised one more option for the Island Innovator rig, which adds another 40 days to the contracted work. This optional work is on behalf of another operator in Equatorial Guinea.

While the newly exercised option when combined with the previously agreed work scope will keep the rig engaged in Equatorial Guinea for approximately 230 days, Trident Energy still has two more options that may be exercised to extend the rig’s stay further.

Roger Simmenes, Island Drilling Company’s CEO, commented: “This extension continues our relationship and enables us to become even more efficient and serve our customers’ evolving needs. We look forward to continuing our work with Trident Energy in Equatorial Guinea.”

Currently, the Island Innovator rig is working for Dana Petroleum in the UK. Once the rig completes this job, it will start its preparation for the work in Equatorial Guinea, which is slated to start in September/October 2023.

The 2012-built Island Innovator rig is a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling, well intervention and completion unit of GM4000 WI enhanced design. The rig owner recently disclosed its plan to retrofit the semi-submersible drilling rig with Ecochlor’s EcoOne filterless ballast water management system (BWMS).

Prior to this announcement, the rig won another contract extension in Africa, prolonging its plug and abandonment (P&A) operations offshore Mauritania.