Neptune Hires Chinese Rig for Norwegian Wells

Privately-backed Neptune Energy has awarded a rig contract to drill at least three and possibly six wells in its Duva/Gjoa P1 gas and oil fields to Norway's CIMC Offshore, the UK-based company said March 19. The rig will be the Beacon Atlantic semi-submersible drilling unit, which is being built at the CIMC Raffles shipyard in Yantai, China. 

The Duva field is 6 km northeast of the Gjøa field and the discovery was made in production licence 636 in August 2016, when it was still operated by French Engie, by drilling well 36 / 7-4. Operator Neptune and Idemitsu Petroleum have 30% each and Pandion Energy and Wellesley Petroleum have 20% each, and they expect to produce and sell 8.4bn m³ over the lifetime of the project.

Neptune, whose purchase of Engie's upstream business closed a year ago, submitted its field develpment plan to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate a month ago. It said Duva will be developed with a subsea facility tied in to Gjoa, about 6 km away. The oil and gas in Duva will be produced from two oil wells and one gas well.

The Gjøa field was discovered in 1989, and a PDO was delivered and approved by the Norwegian authorities in 2007. The field was developed with five subsea templates tied to the Gjoa semi-submersible for processing and export. Production started in 2010. Oil is exported by pipeline to Mongstad and gas by pipeline to St Fergus in the UK. The Gjoa P1 segment is in the northern part of the Gjoa field.

There, the partners are Neptune Energy and Norway's Petoro, each with 30%; Germany's Wintershall has 20%, Norway's OKEA has 12% and German DEA has 8%. Wintershall is expected to have all the necessary approvals to complete its purchase of DEA by the end of June.

Designed for harsh environments, Beacon Atlantic will be suitable for drilling three development wells on the Duva field (formerly Cara). In addition, it may drill another three development wells in the northernmost part of the Gjøa field, the P1 segment. Neptune Energy said it has options to use the rig for additional development or exploration wells.

Neptune said the contract meant the company was "on track to develop the Duva and Gjøa P1 fields, both of which are key growth assets in our Norwegian North Sea portfolio. First oil for Duva is expected by late 2020 and early 2021 for Gjøa P1.”

Sail-away is scheduled in the summer of 2019 and the rig is expected to arrive at the first drilling location in the fourth quarter of 2019.