WATCH: Valaris rig units sail for its gig with Repsol

Offshore drilling contractor Valaris has revealed that one among its jack-up rigs is on its strategy to its new task with Repsol, a Spanish oil and fuel firm.

Again in August 2021, Valaris was awarded a three-well deal for Valaris JU-290 (Viking) by Repsol for operations offshore Norway. The contract was anticipated to start out in mid-2022 with an estimated period of 167 days. 

On the time, this jack-up rig was beneath a contract with Lundin, which was scheduled to finish in October 2021. Afterwards, Valaris Viking was set to work for Spirit Vitality from November till December 2021.

As reported in February 2022, the rig secured a one-well cope with Sval Energi offshore Norway, which was attributable to begin in March 2022 with an estimated period of 66 days, ending in Could this yr, forward of the rig’s cope with Repsol.

In an replace final week, Valaris revealed that the rig’s preparation for its marketing campaign with Repsol was accomplished. Due to this fact, the rig departed the GOT shipyard in Mandal, Norway, and launched into its journey to its task at Yme Beta. The Valaris Viking rig is predicted to hold out operations for Repsol in Norway till October 2022.

Sindre Eltvik, Valaris Rig Supervisor, remarked: “Shout out to the Valaris Viking crew for the work and dedication to getting the rig prepared to start out its new contract. The crew now shifts their focus to delivering operational excellence for Repsol.”

The 2010-built Valaris Viking is a jack-up rig of a KFELS N-Class design, which may accommodate 120 folks. The rig’s most drilling depth is 35,000 ft.

In relation to the Yme area, it’s price noting that this was one of many first oil fields on the Norwegian shelf to be redeveloped after it was shut down. Situated within the Egersund Basin, roughly 130 km from the Norwegian shoreline, it was first introduced on stream by Equinor again in 1996 solely to be shut down in 2001 as a result of low oil worth atmosphere, rendering it unprofitable on the time.

Following years of delays, the sphere began producing once more in late October 2021 and has been shut in twice since then and reopened. The primary shutdown occurred in November 2021, lower than a month after the primary oil, with the intention to “assess the excessive oil in water readings.”

The second was throughout the Easter holidays following the detection of a minor oil spill, and the manufacturing was restarted once more in Could.

The anticipated recoverable reserves in Yme are estimated at roughly 10 million customary cubic meters of oil (approx. 63 million barrels of oil equal). At plateau, the sphere will produce round 56,000 bbl/d per day.

Repsol Norge is the operator of the sphere with a 55 per cent curiosity whereas its companions embrace Lotos Exploration and Manufacturing Norge with 20 per cent working curiosity, OKEA with 15 per cent, and KUFPEC Norway with 10 per cent curiosity.

Valaris has been actively securing new work for its offshore rigs and Offshore Vitality reported in April 2022 that a number of of Valaris’ rigs had been embarking on their new assignments within the Gulf of Mexico, Mauritania, and Brazil.

As well as, the rig proprietor not too long ago acquired a termination discover for the drilling contract involving a drillship, which was speculated to work for Equinor within the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.