Rig: Neptune

Eurasia Drilling secure long-term contracts for two jackups

Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC) has released the company’s outlook for 2014 which includes the outlook for its offshore drilling business. The company announced two new long-term rig contracts that have been assigned to the ‘Astra’ and ‘Neptune’ jackup rigs. The recently delivered newbuild ‘Neptune’ jackup has been awarded a five year contract for drilling operations by a Lukoil led consortium, which is expected to begin upon completion of the units’ current contract with Dragon Oil. Meanwhile the ‘Astra’ jackup will begin a new five year drilling contract with Lukoil in the Russian waters of the Caspian Sea towards the end of January 2014 upon completion of its current drilling contract in Turkmenistan. EDC currently has a backlog of US$1.2 billion for its offshore drilling services division.

Dragon Oil releases rig update information

Dragon Oil (Dragon) has released an update on the status of the company’s contracted offshore drilling rigs in the Cheleken Contract Area in Turkmenistan. Dragon plans to use the newly delivered ‘Neptune’ jackup rig to spud the Dzhygalybeg (Zhdanov) 21/101 well in mid-January 2014. The ‘Neptune’ jackup recently arrived in Turkmenistan for the beginning of its nine-month contract with Dragon and is being prepared for drilling operations. At the end of its nine month contract the ‘Neptune’ will be released by Dragon and replaced by the currently under construction ‘Mercury’ jackup, which will complete the remaining 27 months of the three year contract signed with Eurasia Drilling. Meanwhile the ‘Caspian Driller’ jackup faces further delays with the unit now not expected to begin operations until mid-2014 due to contractor delays. The ‘Caspian Driller’ was originally ordered in 2007 and took 6 years to be delivered from the yard.

Eurasia Drilling Company takes delivery of newbuild 'Neptune' jackup

Lamprell announced that the shipyard has successfully delivered the first of two newbuild Caspian Sea focused jackup rigs to Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC). The ‘Neptune’ jackup has been built to LeTourneau’s Super 116-E (Enhanced) jackup design and after undergoing initial fabrication at Lamprell’s Hamriyah shipyard in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the unit’s modules were transferred to the Astrakhan yard in Kazakhstan, where the unit underwent final completion. The ‘Neptune’ will now mobilise to Turkmenistan where EDC won a drilling contract with Dragon Oil.

Eurasia Drilling Company secures three year Caspian Sea contract for newbuild jackups

BKE Shelf a subsidiary of Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC) has been awarded announced a three year drilling contract for operations in the Cheleken Contract Area, offshore Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea with Dragon Oil. The contract is split into two drilling periods and incorporates the use of both of EDC’s newbuild jackup rigs the ‘Neptune’ and ‘Mercury’ units. The ‘Neptune’ jackup will begin the first portion of the contract in Q4 2013 upon delivery from the Kazakhstan yard where the unit is currently based and will drill for a nine month period before coming off contract in Q3 2014. The remaining twenty seven months of the contract are assigned to the ‘Mercury’ jackup which is expected to be delivered from Lamprell in Q4 2014 and the unit will begin working for Dragon Oil upon its delivery from the yard.