Noble rig clinches South American drilling gig with Petrobras

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has secured more work for one of its semi-submersible rigs offshore Colombia, South America.

The company’s Noble Discoverer semi-submersible rig has won a contract with Petrobras International Braspetro B.V. – Sucursal Colombia, a subsidiary of Brazil’s Petrobras, for the provision of drilling services offshore Colombia.

Blake Denton, SVP of Marketing & Contracts, commented: “We are thrilled to announce that we will expand our relationship with Petrobras with this significant contract win for the Noble Discoverer.

“This also means that we will build further on the Discoverer’s already announced presence in Colombia, which is one of the South American basins that is now coming back with exciting prospects.“

With an expected start date in 2Q 2024, the contract has a firm duration of 400 days and comes with an option to extend the duration by 390 days. The rig is currently operating offshore Colombia for Ecopetrol, where it is drilling the Orca North-1 exploration well.

The 2009-built Noble Discoverer is a DSS-21 column-stabilized dynamically positioned, sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling rig, capable of operating in water depths of up to 10,000 ft. The rig’s maximum drilling depth is 40,000 ft. It can accommodate 180 people.

This is a third deal, which Noble announced in a matter of days, and follows the contract extension for the Noble Intrepid ultra-harsh environment jack-up rig with Harbour Energy for operations in the UK part of the North Sea.

In addition, it comes after the offshore drilling player revealed that BP added a one-well option to the work scope of the Noble Innovator ultra-harsh environment jack-up rig with an estimated duration of 90 days, keeping the rig busy in the North Sea into December 2024.