A Norwegian oilfield service firm, SeaDrill Limited, has signed a five-year contract with international oil and gas major, Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, for deployment of the newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship West Jupiter, in support of the Egina ultra-deep offshore project in Nigeria.
According to SeaDrill the contract has a total revenue potential for the primary contract term of approximately US$1.1 bn (about N167 billion) inclusive of mobilization. The oil service firm added that its total consolidated backlog stands at approximately US$20bn with the execution of the contract.
The West Jupiter is one of eight sixth generation drillships currently under construction for Seadrill and is expected to be delivered from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, South Korea in August 2014. The rig will be outfitted to work in up to 10,000 feet (ft) of water and is capable of water depths up to 12,000 ft and drilling depths up to 37,500 ft.
Seadrill Chief Execuve Officer, Per Wullf said the contract has given the company an opportunity to strategically increase its presence in the Nigerian market adding that they are very pleased to have been chosen by Total and its partners for this important project.
The Egina project takes technology and skill transfers to a new level, giving Nigeria the full benefit of Total’s deep offshore experience and expertise. Total had projected that the field would be brought on stream by the end of 2017, as the start-up of the Egina development is expected to reinforce to Nigeria’s deepwater production potential.
According to Total, the development of this oil field, located 130 km from shore in a water depth of 1,750 m, will benefit from Total’s extensive deep offshore experience in the Gulf of Guinea. The field infrastructure consists of a subsea production system tied in to a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel with a processing capacity of 200,000 b/d and a storage capacity of 2.3 million barrels.
