Two new jobs to keep Island Drilling busy in UK and Mauritania

Norwegian offshore drilling company Island Drilling has secured two new contracts, one with Petrofac in the UK North Sea and another with Maersk Decom for P&A operations offshore Mauritania.

Island Drilling said this week that Petrofac had awarded a contract for a workover on Tailwind Energy’s Orlando field with the Island Innovator rig in Q2/3 2022. In addition, the rig has two options for other potential work.

The drilling contractor said that the work would start right after the completion of the BP-7 well for Dana Petroleum, which was awarded to the company in October 2021.

Furthermore, Maersk Decom Mauritania has awarded Island Drilling a contract for plugging and abandonment of four firm and one optional well in the Tullow Oil-operated Banda and Tiof fields. The work is set to begin in 4Q 2022 and is estimated to last for 75 days in total.

Maersk Decom secured a contract for the complete plugging and abandonment of Tullow Oil’s Banda and Tiof fields in February 2020. Providing an end-to-end plugging and abandonment solution under one single contract, Maersk Decom will bundle project management, engineering, and planning with the execution of plug and abandonment of seven legacy exploration & appraisal wells, as well as the removal and disposal of subsea equipment.

While the planning and engineering started immediately following the contract award, the offshore execution was expected to start in early 2021.

The Banda and Tiof fields are two oil and gas accumulations offshore Mauritania in water depths from 200m to 1,200m. The licenses are located approximately 53km and 84km offshore Nouakchott, Mauritania.

According to the rig owner, this contract in Mauritania will keep its Island Innovator rig in operation during the winter in 2022 and the rig is expected to be back in the North Sea at the beginning of 2023.

“We are very pleased to continue to add backlog to Island Innovator with this contract after finishing work in UK. This will keep Island Innovator in operation from the end of March 2022 throughout 2022,” says Island Drilling Company CEO, Roger Simmenes.