New drilling deals in Middle East bring $1.9 bln to COSL

Offshore drilling contractor China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL) has been awarded multiple contracts for the provision of drilling rig services by an undisclosed oil company in the Middle East.

COSL revealed on Monday that it had inked several long-term drilling rig service contracts with “a first-class international oil company” in the Middle East. These deals are worth approximately RMB 14 billion or around $1.9 billion.

The Chinese player sees these deals as “a new stage of deepening cooperation” with international oil companies in various fields of oilfield exploration and development.

In addition, COSL believes that its overseas business service in the Middle East will form a new market pattern of “all-round integration into the Arabian Gulf, all-round community formation and all-round promotion of high-quality development,” following the implementation of this project.

The drilling contractor also explains that these deals will enable it not only to “fully activate the large-scale operation capability” of its offshore drilling service fleet, but also to upgrade and speed up to ensure the implementation of oilfield exploration and development needs are met.

When it comes to COSL’s recent activities in China, it is worth noting that one of the drilling contractor’s rigs carried out drilling operations at Block 29/11 earlier this year for Empyrean Energy.

While the drilling of the Jade well proved that there was no oil migration into the Jade trap, after analysing well results, Empyrean decided to embark on the second phase of exploration drilling in Block 29/11, planning to drill another high-impact prospect.