IOG Hires Rig for North Sea Gas Project
Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has hired the Hans Deul jack-up rig from Noble Corp to drill the five wells planned under the first phase of its Core project in the southern North Sea, it said on November 3.
A contract was awarded after a selection process, involving the extensive technical and commercial evaluation of offers by several drilling contractors. The Hans Deul jack-up will sink three wells at the Southwark field and one each at the Blythe and Elgood fields. The rig already has a successful track record in the southern North Sea.
Phase-1 drilling will run between the first quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022, with first gas scheduled for the third quarter of 2021. Noble's contract has an option for potentially two extra wells.
IOG is partnered at the Core project with CalEnergy Resources, a unit of US investment group Berkshire Hathaway that farmed into the fields in October last year. The scheme's first phase will develop Southwark, Blythe and Elgood, while its second will target the Goddard, Nailsworth and Elland fields. Together the two phases aim to recover some 11.6bn m3 of gas.
IOG hired the UK's Subsea 7 for the construction of the project's subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines in May, and went on to enlist the UK's Petrofac as a well management provider for the project the following month. It also picked Dutch contractor HSM Offshore in August to build the first-phase platform.