Island Drilling rig finishes plug and abandonment gig offshore Africa

Norwegian offshore rig operator Island Drilling Company has wrapped up its plug and abandonment (P&A) campaign off the coast of Mauritania, Africa, which is being carried out with its 2012-built semi-submersible rig.

Island Drilling’s Island Innovator rig’s first assignment, since its infill drilling campaign on Block G offshore Equatorial Guinea was terminated in February 2024, started on August 16, 2024. The work, related to a plug and abandonment campaign with Tullow Oil in Mauritania, was completed on October 15, 2024.

The 2012-built semi-submersible won a contract extension with Petrofac in January 2023 for the plug and abandonment operations offshore Mauritania. The extension followed the contract from December 2021, which was secured with Maersk Decom before Petrofac assumed responsibility for the subsea well decommissioning scope.

According to the rig owner, the operations, which were carried out in water depths ranging from 208 to 1,200 meters using dynamic positioning (DP) alone, were completed within the planned timeframe and under budget, reflecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the collaboration.

The Island Innovator rig was tasked with performing five well re-entries at the Tullow Oil-operated Banda and Tiof fields, with the scope of work encompassing the abandonment of suspended subsea exploration and appraisal wells, as well as various seabed cleanup activities.

The Banda and Tiof fields are two oil and gas accumulations located approximately 53 km and 84 km offshore Nouakchott. The Island Innovator rig is a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling, well intervention, and completion unit of GM4000 WI enhanced design.

While highlighting that all health, safety, and environmental (HSE) standards and key performance indicators (KPIs) were achieved throughout the project, Island Drilling underlined: “This success was made possible through excellent cooperation between our offshore and onshore teams, working together under the ‘One Team’ approach.

“We are proud of the performance and the positive outcomes achieved during this period and look forward to future opportunities to work with Tullow Oil.”