Premier Oil hires Apexindo’s jack-up rig

London-listed oil firm Premier Oil has reportedly hired one of Apexindo’s jack-up drilling rigs on a three-month term deal.

According to the maritime and offshore analytics company VesselsValue, Premier Oil hired the Indonesian drilling contractor’s three-year-old Tasha jack-up.

The rig was hired on Tuesday, November 28, and the contract is supposed to last until February 27, 2018, the website said.

The drilling rig’s previous deal was a two phase charter with Premier Oil on the Anoa field in the Natuna Sea offshore Indonesia. The first phase was for four wells with an expected duration of 135 days, scheduled to end in November.

Under the original charter, the second phase of the contract was optional and, if exercised, would last for 324 days, starting in April 2018. The rig was supposed to be available for other work in between the two phases.

It is not clear whether this latest three-month deal is a part of the second phase, or if this is a contract unrelated to the Anoa contract.

Tasha is of a Friede Goldman JU 2000E design, built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corp. in China. It can drill to a maximum depth of 30,000 feet and can accommodate 140 people.