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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Azeri President inaugurates jack-up rig

His Excellency Mr Heydar Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, inaugurated the new Keppel FELS-built jack-up rig in Baku, Azerbaijan on 29 August 2000. At the same ceremony, the rig was named Qurtulus, which means salvation or revival in Azeri. The rig will be formally delivered to Transocean Sedco Forex in early September, some two months ahead of contracted schedule. It is the first new rig of international standard to be completed in the Caspian Sea and enters the market at a time when the Caspian Sea is facing a severe shortage of such drilling rigs.

EDC negotiating with Transocean to acquire Trident XX drilling rig

Eurasia Drilling Company Limited ("EDC" or the "Company" - LSE: EDCL) today announced that it is in negotiations with an affiliate of Transocean for the acquisition of the TRIDENT XX jack-up drilling rig presently operating in the Caspian Sea. If agreed, the acquisition from Transocean is anticipated to close by January 31, 2011 or shortly thereafter, with an estimated transaction value of US$ 260 million. The TRIDENT XX is a Keppel FELS CS Mod V cantilever Jack-up capable of operating in water depths to 350 feet and drilling to 26,000 feet.

Completion of Trident XX acquisition from Transocean

EDC announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Trident XX jack-up drilling rig from Transocean for a total consideration of US$ 260 million. The Trident XX is a Keppel FELS CS Mod V cantilever jack-up capable of operating in water depths to 350 feet and capable of drilling to 26,000 feet. The rig is presently operating in Turkmen waters of the Caspian Sea on a long-term contract with PETRONAS Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd, which runs through 2012.

EDC announces renaming of Trident XX jack-up rig to Saturn

Eurasia Drilling Company Limited ("EDC" or the "Company" - LSE: EDCL), the leading onshore and offshore drilling service provider in the CIS, announces that in February 2012 its Trident XX jack-up drilling rig was renamed SATURN. The Saturn is a Keppel FELS CS Mod V cantilever jack-up delivered in 2001, and is capable of operating in water depths to 350 feet and drilling to 26,000 feet. The SATURN is the highest specification jack-up rig currently operating in the Caspian Sea, with features including three 2,200hp mud pumps, a 3,000hp drawworks and a 15,000 psi high-pressure BOP system. The jack up rig, which was acquired in February 2011 from Transocean, is presently operating in Turkmen waters of the Caspian Sea on a long-term contract with Petronas Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd which will run through 2012.

EDC’s Saturn jack up rig ends 5th year without LTI

Eurasia Drilling Company Limited ("EDC" or the "Company" - LSE: EDCL), the leading onshore and offshore drilling service provider in the CIS, today announces that its offshore jack up drilling rig, the Saturn, (previously Trident XX) achieved the major milestone of working continuously for five years without a Lost time Incident (LTI) in June 2012. The commitment to incident free operations by EDC's offshore crews and onshore management combined with the full support of EDC's contractors are the main contributory factors to reaching this goal. Saturn is owned and managed by the Turkmenistan Branch of BKE Shelf Ltd in Ashgabat and has worked almost entirely throughout this five year period in Turkmenistan for Petronas Carigali apart from a 6 month spell in 2010 when it worked for CMOC (Caspi Meruerty Operating Company B.V) in Kazakhstan.

'Mercury' jackup christened in Russian shipyard

The christening ceremony of jack-up rig Mercury took place on site of “Astrakhan Shipbuilding Production Association” (part of “Caspian Energy Group”). It is the second jack-up rig assembled with facilities of “Astrakhan Shipbuilding Production Association”. In 2013 jack-up rig Neptune of the same type left for the offshore field in the Caspian Sea. Operation of new jack-up rig Mercury is also planned in the Caspian Sea at depths of up 107 m. It is able to drill wells with a depth of more than 9 km. The living quarter of the platform is equipped with all the necessary facilities for the rest and household of 105 persons. The jack-up rig Mercury christening ceremony was attended by Sergey Shtrikov, General Director of OJSC “ROSSHELF”, Sergey Krzhanovsky, Minister for transport, industry and natural resources of Astrakhan Region, Konstantin Grigoriev, General Director of “Caspian Energy Management” LLC, representatives of client, Astrakhan region government, local and foreign shipbuilding and oil & gas companies.

EDC announces termination of 'Saturn' jackup contract

Eurasia Drilling Company Limited ("EDC") has announced that it received a letter of early termination of the contract for its Saturn jackup rig effective from October 8th 2015. The current contract was due to expire on 8th January 2016 and the early termination fee consists of 100% of contract rate for 30 days from effective date followed by 85% of contract rate for the remainder of the term (or 62 days).