First foray into Spanish waters takes Noble rig on multi-well P&A gig

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has secured a new deal for one of its jack-up rigs off the coast of Spain, where the rig will carry out plug and abandonment (P&A) activities.

The Noble Resolve jack-up rig’s new assignment with an undisclosed operator in Spain consists of plug and abandonment work on 13 wells.

This job, which is expected to start in the second quarter of 2025 and last approximately 170 days, comes with a contract value of around $40 million, including mobilization and demobilization of the drilling unit.

Commenting on the deal, Blake Denton, Noble’s SVP of Marketing and Contracts, remarked: “We are excited about Noble’s first contract offshore Spain to perform this long-awaited P&A campaign.”

With a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 ft, the 2009-built Noble Resolute is a 350 ft, Gusto-engineered MSC CJ50 high-efficiency jack-up rig that previously worked for Petrogas off the coast of the Netherlands.

Noble claims that this rig has operated with a fuel load containing 20% sustainable diesel (HVO) since its Dutch drilling campaign began in November 2023 to reduce CO2 emissions from drilling operations.

Noble Corporation secured multimillion-dollar assignments in the 1Q 2024 for its rig fleet, bringing its total backlog to $4.4 billion.