National Drilling Company (NDC), Abu Dhabi, awarded Lamprell a US$365 million contract for the construction and delivery of two high specification jackup drilling rigs of a Super 116E (enhanced) class. Under the contract terms, NDC has…
A joint industry project on jacking system maintenance and inspection has resulted in a new DNV GL Recommended Practice. This provides guidance to ensure the correct and safe functioning of rack and pinion style jacking systems. The objective is to reduce the risk of gear failure…
Maersk Drilling is selling its drilling barge activities in Venezuela to Barrystar Holding, an investment company based in Panama. The activities, registered in the company Maritime Contractors Venezuela (MCVSA), comprise the ownership…
Statoil and partner RN Nordic Oil, a Rosneft subsidiary, began exploration drilling on the Pingvin prospect in production license 713 in the Norwegian Barents Sea using the Transocean Spitsbergen semisubmersible drilling rig (pictured) in 422m water depth…
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) found hydrocarbons on the Zhongjannan exploration project, off the Paracel or Xisha Islands, in the South China, the firm announced. Drilling, using the 2011-delivered, deepwater, HYSY-981…
Drydocks World announced the completion of a major refurbishment carried out on National Drilling Company’s (NDC) offshore drilling rig Al Ghallan. The project is part of a series of four rig repair and refurbishment projects signed with NDC in 2013…
Drydocks World has completed a major repair and refurbishment of National Drilling Company’s (NDC) jackup drilling rig Al Ittihad. The company has carried out maintenance work on several of NDC’s rigs and the numbers have increased over the years…
Petrobras Colombia Ltd. will drill the Orca prospect in the Tayrona-1 (Tayrona Occidental) block off Colombia's Caribbean coast in 2Q 2014. The company will move a rig from Brazil to spud the Orca-1 exploration well in water about 600m deep off the Guajira peninsula…
Dubai-based rig builder Lamprell has completed construction on the jackup drilling rig Qarnin (pictured) and its delivery to Abu Dhabi’s National Drilling Company (NDC). The on time and on budget completion was marked at a ceremony held at Lamprell’s Hamriyah facility in the UAE February 13…
Masirah Oil Ltd. has said hydrocarbons were found in several formations during exploration well drilling in Block 50, offshore Oman. The well was Masirah's second in Block 50, and reached afinal depth of 3000m in the Cambrian formation…
Rising requirements for rigs in the Middle East is increasing competition for jackup refurbishment and conversion. Elaine Maslin reports. About quarter of the world’s 480-strong jackup drilling rig fleet resides in the Persian Gulf and…
National Oilwell Varco Inc. announced that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Merrill A. “Pete” Miller, Jr. has informed the Board of Directors that he intends to step down from those positions, concurrent with the completion of plans to…
The Caspian Sea is a land-locked interior basin with established oil and gas production that has seen increasing activity since the bordering nations gained independence from the former USSR in the late 1990s. Five nations surround the sea: Russia…
National Grid has completed appraisal drilling of a carbon dioxide storage site underneath the North Sea. It says the site, 65km off the Yorkshire coast, appeared viable for carbon dioxide storage and would be able to hold about 200 million tonnes…
Recent offshore drilling by Apache and Anadarko help gauge the potential of the Lamu basin. Vision 2030 is Kenya’s development strategy which aims to transform the economy and “create a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030…
