The Block 11B/12B drilling programme offshore South Africa under the £116-152m contract will be undertaken by the Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible rig
Image: Odfjell Drilling wins drilling contract for Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa. Photo: courtesy of rawpixel/Pixabay.
Total and its joint venture partners in the offshore Block 11B/12B in South Africa have given a multi-well drilling contract to Odfjell Drilling, which will be executed by the Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible rig.
The drilling contract, which will cover costs for the compensation for mobilisation and demobilisation periods as well of the semi-submersible rig, is estimated to be in the range $145-190m (£116.13-152.18m) plus incentives.
Details of Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa
Located in the Outeniqua Basin, 175km off the southern coast of South Africa, Block 11B/12B spans an area of 19,000km2. It is contained in water depths in the range 200-1,800m.
Total is the operator of the block with 45% stake through its $8.8bn (£7.05bn) acquisition of the African assets of Anadarko Petroleum. Qatar Petroleum and Canadian Natural Resources are the other major stakeholders in Block 11B/12B, with stakes of 25% and 20%, respectively.
Main Street 1549 Proprietary holds the remaining 10% participating stake in the offshore South African block. Africa Energy, which has a stake of 49% in Main Street 1549 Proprietary, completed acquisition of 4.9% stake in the exploration right for Block 11B/12B in December 2018.
CNR International (South Africa), a fully-owned subsidiary of Canadian Natural Resources, holds 5% stake out of the 10% interest held by Main Street 1549 Proprietary in the South African block.
According to Africa Energy, the Paddavissie Fairway located in the southwest corner of Block 11B/12B includes the Brulpadda discovery and various submarine fan prospects.
Recently, the joint venture partners of Block 11B/12B wrapped up the first phase of the 3D seismic acquisition program over the Paddavissie Fairway. Africa Energy said that the Brulpadda well results will be integrated with the 3D seismic data ahead of the drilling program in 2020, which will include a maximum of three exploration wells to target the Luiperd prospect and others.
Africa Energy president and CEO Garrett Soden said: “We are very pleased that Total was able to secure the Deepsea Stavanger rig again for the next phase of drilling on Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa.
“Using the same equipment and crew that drilled the Brulpadda oil and gas discovery earlier this year should save time and reduce cost.”
Odfjell Drilling expects the drilling campaign with Deepsea Stavanger to take 180-280 days. The company expects to start mobilisation of the semi-submersible rig to South Africa in Q1 2020.
Odfjell Drilling CEO Simen Lieungh said: “Following Total’s recent successful campaign with Deepsea Stavanger in South Africa on the Brulpadda well, which ended in February 2019, we are very pleased to continue the collaboration with Total for the next phase of the project on Block 11B/12B.”