Noble shines light on overcoming challenging rig move through minefield

U.S. offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has offered insights into the difficulties it had to come to grips with to transport one of its jack-up rigs for the firm’s inaugural drilling assignment off the coast of Poland.

Only a couple of months after the Noble Resolve jack-up rig got its first job in Spain to undertake plug and abandonment work on 13 wells, Noble revealed the same jack-up’s first drilling campaign offshore Poland.

The one-well assignment with CEP Central European Petroleum in the 593-square-kilometer Wolin concession was due to begin in October 2024, spanning 45 days at a daily rate of $140,000 per day. Poland’s Ministry of the Environment handed over the concession area on December 1, 2017.

As a result, CEP secured the exclusive rights to explore, develop, and produce hydrocarbons, with the main targets being natural gas accumulations in the Main Dolomite margin trend and the Rotliegend Sandstones.

The firm sees Wolin as a major natural gas area with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, the Police petrochemical complex, and future LNG fueling of ships, which is expected to bolster Poland’s natural gas supply and help the country with its efforts to decarbonize the economy.

Noble later disclosed that its client wanted to know whether the Noble Resolve jack-up rig could move through a minefield to reach its drilling destination offshore Poland. According to the rig owner, the 539 nautical mile journey for the Noble Resolve jack-up from Esbjerg Denmark was “full of challenges.”

As the rig’s journey was fraught with difficulties, Noble had to come to grips with several items on the to-do list of the marine operations department, supported by specialized contractors. This included the need to time the departure from Esbjerg to coincide with a good weather window.

The firm also had to pick up a pilot in the Skagerrak region of the North Sea to assist with navigating the busy shipping strait, then transit the Drogden channel near the Copenhagen airport, coinciding with the planned shutdown of two airport runways because of the proximity of the very high rig legs.

In addition, the firm had to move under tow into the Baltic Sea and south to Poland. Upon nearing the very shallow shores of Wolin, the rig owner needed to avoid touching the seabed, where unexploded ordinance from World War II remains in place.

Last but not least, Noble had to follow careful charts guided by divers who surveyed the drilling site for any unexploded ordinance. With a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 feet, the 2009-built Noble Resolute is a 350-foot, Gusto-engineered MSC CJ50 high-efficiency jack-up rig.

Based on Noble’s fleet status report from February 2025, the jack-up rig was slated to finish its drilling gig in Poland with Zenith in February 2025. Afterward, the rig is expected to move to Spain to start its new assignment there in April 2025, under a day rate of $149,000.

Marek Knobloch, Manager Projects & Offshore Poland at Poseidon Frachtcontor Junge, commented: “Our agency, Poseidon Frachtcontor Junge Ltd. in collaboration with Pentagon Freight Services, had the pleasure of participating in the project for test drilling to investigate a gas deposit near Świnoujście using the rig Noble Resolve, owned by Noble Corporation.

“During the project, we were responsible for providing logistical support for the platform as well as crew changes. Despite the fact that many entities were involved in the entire project, the cooperation was exemplary.”

Noble anticipates an increase in drilling demand for the floater fleet from late 2025 and 2026, prompting additional rig reactivations and boosting the firm’s backlog of $5.8 billion further by mid-February 2025.

The firm has set its cap on developing a modular CO2-grade drilling package to address the challenges of operating in pure CO2 environments offshore. With more offshore carbon storage hubs increasingly coming online, the rig owner believes the industry needs to innovate to find “the most efficient and safe methods to maintain these sites.”

“Inspired by initiatives like Project Greensand and the testing we do on the Noble Interceptor, these innovations show our dedication to advancing energy solutions,” emphasized Noble.