Chinese oil company CNOOC has signed a contract with offshore drilling rig provider Stena Drilling for the use of the Stena Forth drillship in Canada.
CNOOC will use the 228 meters-long drillship to drill one well in the Flemish Pass, offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. The operation is expected to take 90 days. Bassoe Offshore has estimated the day rate for the contract to be around $180000.
The estimated start-up of the operations of the 2009-built rig is between April 2021 and June 2021.
"The region is classified as harsh environment, with water depths ranging from 330 meters to 1,200 meters and unpredictable weather conditions. Stena Forth’s ability for station keeping is essential to allow a safe and efficient completion of the program," Stena Drilling said.
Stena Forth, built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, is a harsh environment, dynamically positioned DP Class 3 drillship capable of drilling in water depths up to 3000 meters, with a maximum drilling depth of 10,700 meters.
According to MarineTraffic, the rig is currently in Las Palmas. The Stena Forth is expected to mobilize to Suriname in late December 2020 or early January 2021 where it will start a one-well drilling operation for Tullow Oil, under a contract awarded in September 2020.
After this, the rig will move to the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Israel, where it will be used for the decommissioning of four wells for Chevron.