Northern Offshore expects revenue drop on drillship woes

Northern Offshore’s third quarter 2014 revenue will take a hit after it has been announced that the company’s only drillship experienced equipment problems offshore Nigeria.

As previously announced, drilling operation at the Camac Energy-operated Oyo-8 well was halted after leaks were found in some control system hoses of the well’s blow out preventer.

The Oslo-listed drilling contractor Northern Offshore, Ltd. has announced that repairs are underway and are expected to be completed soon allowing operations to resume within two weeks.

“The Company expects its consolidated financial results for the third quarter 2014 to be negatively impacted by a reduction of approximately forty-five days of revenue for this unit,” the company said in a statement.

The Energy Searcher drillship, capable of drilling to total depths of up to 25,000 feet, and in water depths of up to 2,500 feet, is under contract for an initial term of one year, which may be extended for an additional one year, to carry out Camac’s development program for the Oyo Field and to drill one or more high-impact exploration wells on OMLs 120 and 121 offshore Nigeria.