Noble drillship gets multi-well drilling job in Africa

U.S.-headquartered offshore drilling giant Noble Corporation has landed a new drilling campaign in western Africa, which one of its drillships will carry out off the coast of Ghana.

The new contract will enable the Noble Venturer drillship to begin its assignment with Tullow Ghana, a subsidiary of the UK-based Tullow Oil, in May 2025 in direct continuation after the completion of a campaign for Rhino Resources.

With a total contract value of $171 million, the new drilling campaign is for six firm wells, estimated to span 360 days. Once the first two wells have been drilled, which is expected to take 120 days, the assignment will be suspended at zero rates until the end of 2025 to perform a planned special period survey (SPS) maintenance, including thruster replacement.

Afterward, the rig will resume work offshore Ghana in January 2026 for the remaining four firm wells that are anticipated to require 240 days. The deal also includes three additional extension options of two wells each, with 120 days forecasted to be required for each to be done.
 
Blake Denton, Noble’s SVP of Marketing and Contracts, commented: “The Noble Venturer’s return to Ghana is a clear indication of the continued trust and confidence Tullow has placed in Noble, the rig, and most importantly the crew. We’re committed to delivering exceptional performance for Tullow and continued value to the Ghanaian economy.”

The rig was slated to complete its previous drilling campaign in Ghana with Tullow Oil in late May 2024 rather than in March 2025, as previously estimated. Upon completion of work in Equatorial Guinea, the drillship was slated to embark on a journey to Namibia to take care of drilling activities for Rhino Resources.

Constructed at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in Korea, the 2014-built Noble Venturer drillship can operate in water depths of 12,000 feet, and its maximum drilling depth is 40,000 feet. This rig can accommodate 230 people. 

In the aftermath of its merger with Diamond Offshore, Noble’s backlog stood at $6.2 billion in Q3 2024, compared to $4.2 billion in Q2 2024 and $4.7 billion last year. While the U.S. firm recently pointed out that contract fixtures for lower specification floaters were limited in 2024, it also mentioned the forecasts, which indicate a softer utilization environment throughout 2025 because of white space risk continuing to impact all floater segments.

The state of affairs in the offshore drilling market is expected to improve in late 2025 and 2026.