Rowan Companies plc said the Rowan Renaissance drillship has been pulled from service off West Africa after experiencing equipment problems, the company announced in its monthly fleet status report released on 27 May 2014.
Rowan said the rig experienced issues with its subsea systems on 19 May, and that it expects to return the rig to normal operatons by early June. Rowan expects to incur some unbillable operational downtime due to repairs on the Rowan Renaissance.
The Rowan Renaissance, a sixth generation GustoMSC P10000 design drillship, was built by South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries at the Ulsan yard.
It arrived in Namibia in March to begin a three-year contract for Spain's Repsol. The operator's partner, Tower Resources, first reported on 2 May that the Namibia drilling program ran into complications. Tower said following spudding of the Welwitschia-1 well, the wellhead housing slumped. The joint venture partners later determined that a new well, Welwitschia-1A, would be drilled about 50m away from the original spud location.
According to Tower, Repsol later reported a problem with a part of the BOP control system, and suspended drilling operations.
Repsol holds 44% interest in Namibia licencse PEL0010. Its joint venture partners include Tower Resources' subsidiary Neptune (30%) and Arcadia Expro (Namibia) (26%).
In other Rowan fleet news, the LeTourneau 240-C Class Joe Douglas jackup received a 90-day contract with Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas in the Gulf of Mexico commencing May 2014 at a day rate of $165,000.
The LeTourneau 219-C Class super gorilla Rowan Gorilla VII jackup will extend its time with Apache, securing a 220-day extension, operating in the UK North Sea, beginning November 2014, at a dayrate of US$280,000.
The LeTourneau 200-C Class Rowan Gorilla II jackup also received a 120 day contract extension from Pertamina for work off Indonesia.
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