Drilling advances

	Vol. 225 No. 9
ROBERT E. SNYDER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEERING EDITOR

Offshore jackup rig action. Jackups have been in the news lately. On the down side, Global Santa Fe reported the sinking of its GSF Adriatic IV,some 25 mi offshore Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea on August 10. The rig was severely damaged during a fire following a well control incident and sank. The rig was located over a production platform owned by Petrobel, an Eni/Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. JIV, and had been on location for 58 days. There were no injuries and all 70 persons aboard were safely evacuated.

Offshore Indonesia, Atwood Oceanics jackup Atwood Beacon, which suffered two leg punch-throughs while positioning for an offshore Indonesia well, had not been moved off location in early August. The rig was to be removed from the location and towed to a shipyard in Singapore for inspection and repair. The rig was moving onto a well for ConocoPhillips at the time of the incident.

And, in early July, Transocean reported that its jackup rig Trident 20 suffered damage from a fire in the rig's engine room while operating offshore Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea. There were no injuries and the rig's crew was reduced to essential personnel only. The rig had been under a three-well contract with Petronas in the Caspian since April 2004, with contract completion previously expected during December 2004. Rig repairs were estimated to range from two to three months.

The jackup market appears active as far as trading rigs is concerned. Parker Drilling sold five jackups and four platform rigs based in the Gulf of Mexico to Hercules Drilling Co. These included the Parker 11J, 15J, 20J, 21J and 22J,and platform rigs Parker 2P, 3P, 10P and 41P, and their related assets. Hercules owned and operated these rigs prior to their sale to Parker in December 1997.

The sale does not include jackups Parker 14J and 25J.Parker is pursuing separate sales offers for 25J. Rig 14J collapsed in September 2003 while initiating drilling operations for Manti Operating in the US Gulf; it was later scrapped.

The five jackups will be renamed Hercules 11, 25, 20, 21 and 22, and the four platform rigs have been renamed Hercules 2, 3, 10 and 41. The acquisition will make Hercules' jackup fleet the sixth largest operating in the US Gulf. It now manages one jackup working in the US Gulf, Hercules 30, formerly the Odin Victory.

In another rig sale, Noble Corp. exercised its option to purchase the jackup Maersk Viking from A. P. Moeller. The rig is offshore the United Arab Emirates, being assimilated into Noble's Middle East fleet, which comprises 12 units. It has been renamed the Noble Cees Van Diemen.

Noble further struck a deal to acquire jackup OKHI.The Levingston Class 111-S jackup, built in 1980, is rated to drill in up to 230 ft of water. It is stacked cold offshore Japan, and Noble is making arrangements to transport it to China's Dalian Shipyard for refurbishment and upgrade. Noble is marketing the rig for work in the Middle East, India and SE Asia. The OKHI, formerly the OKHA, has changed hands more than once recently; it was held by Seatankers Management for a short time.

      Jackup newbuilding continues, with the Offshore Rig Locator listing 17 offshore mobile rigs under construction for drilling by year-end 2006. Of these rigs, 13 are jackups; the others include three semisubmersibles and one tender. Eight of the new jackups are being built in SE Asia, three in the US and one each in the Far East and the Russian Arctic. ABS has recently classified Rowan's new Tarzan class jackup, the Scooter Yeargain, and will soon complete the Bob Keller. Two more Tarzans are planned.

ODS-Petrodata, in a three-page August report, notes that global demand for jackup drilling rigs remains firm and many rig owners anticipate improving market conditions this year. Demand for cantilever jackups rated to work in 250 ft of water and greater, is particularly strong and will continue to drive the global jackup market. Meanwhile, demand for the world's 49 slot jackups rated for 250 feet and greater can best be described as lackluster; utilization of slot rigs remains well below the 80% threshold.

With worldwide demand for cantilever jackups holding firm at 225, utilization of the 235-rig fleet is a robust 95.7%. With only about half of the 10 rigs not under contract available for immediate work, the market is extremely tight. Driven by the strength of this market, the number of new contracts and extensions is on the rise.

Deepwater shipwreck study. What happens to shipwrecks in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and why is the answer so important to the oil and gas industry? A team of world-renowned, multidisciplinary scientists representing the federal government, academia and industry will begin a biological and archaeological investigation of World War II shipwrecks in the deep waters of the Gulf that will address those questions and many more.

This research mission, the most comprehensive such study in the world, will provide new information to answer questions about some of the least studied areas of the Gulf. The $1.2 million study will take 18 days and employ the use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to explore selected deepwater shipwrecks.

In addition to the archaeological and historical aspects of the study, several biological questions have serious implications for the thousands of oil and gas platforms used in the Gulf. For example: Do manmade structures function as artificial reefs in deepwater? What is the effect of the structure on the environment? What effect does the environment have on the structure? Partners in the study include:

• Minerals Management Service
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• National Oceanographic Partnership Program
• C&C Technologies, Inc.
• Droycon Bioconcepts
• University of Alabama/ Dauphin Island Sea Lab
• University of Alaska Fairbanks
• University of West Florida
• The PAST Foundation
• Montana State University
• Sonsub

In late July, Sonsub held a press conference at its Houston facility, with scientists from the project team on hand to discuss plans for the research cruise, use of the ROV, and offer an opportunity to view the ROV and a model of the sunken German U-boat that will be part of the study.