Second Japan Drilling jack-up finds work on Al Shaheen

Japan Drilling has found work for another jack-up rig with the North Oil Company on the giant Al Shaheen oil field offshore Qatar.

This will be a second rig deal awarded to Japan Drilling on the Al Shaheen field after the Hakuryu 12 jack-up was awarded a two-year firm deal with the NOC in early June.

The company said on Tuesday that the Hakuryu 10 jack-up rig was also awarded a two-year deal with additional two one-year extension options.

Japan Drilling added that the contract, signed on October 10 and scheduled to start in January 2018, was worth around $46 million, not including the possible extensions.

The rig is a Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 three-leg self-elevating cantilever type drilling rig built by PPL Shipyard, Singapore, in 2008. According to specs, the Hakuryu 10 has a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 ft (9,144 m) and can accommodate 120 people.

According to InfieldRigs, the Hakuryu 10 is currently ready-stacked in Indonesia.

Al Shaheen

The Al Shaheen field is among the world’s largest oil fields. It has been producing oil for over 20 years and holds the potential to produce a few-fold of the oil it has produced so far. It currently produces around 40% of Qatar’s crude oil, at around 300,000 barrels per day.

The field was operated by Maersk Oil until July 2017 at which time its 25-year production sharing agreement with Qatar Petroleum expired.

The operatorship of the giant Qatari field was taken over by NOC, a joint venture company between Qatar Petroleum and French oil major Total.

Offshore Energy Today Staff