Valaris rig kicks off its gig with Eni

Offshore drilling contractor Valaris has revealed that one of its jack-up rigs has embarked on its new assignment in Australia with Italy’s energy giant, Eni.

Valaris disclosed in a social media post on Monday that the Valaris 107 heavy-duty modern jack-up rig had started operations for Eni in Australia. The rig owner also included a photo of the crew starting the new campaign.

Commenting on this, Daniel Milford, Rig Manager, remarked: “We had an incident-free rig move; thanks to all those involved for contributing to a safe start-up. Looking forward to a safe and successful drilling campaign with Eni.”

According to Valaris’ fleet status report from October, the rig’s contract with Eni was due to start in November 2022 and end in February 2023. Afterwards, the rig is expected to work for GB Energy from February until April 2023 also in Australia.

As disclosed in September 2022, the rig won a one-well contract with an undisclosed operator offshore Australia, expected to start either late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2023 with an estimated duration of 60 days. The operating rate is $120,000 per day.

The 2006-built Valaris 107 jack-up rig is of KFELS MOD V – Class B design. It can accommodate 112 people. The rig’s maximum drilling depth is 30,000 ft.

When it comes to Valaris’ other recent activities, it is worth noting that the firm secured a new assignment for one of its drillships with BP in November 2022. This will enable the drillship to carry out operations off Egypt.

In addition, another one of Valaris’ rigs recently completed its task in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) with Murphy Oil and moved to Mexico to embark on new drilling assignments, which were secured earlier this year.