Northern Offshore ends ‘Energy Searcher’ contract with CAMAC

Northern Offshore, Ltd. has announced today that on January 2, 2015 it issued a Notice of Contract Termination to Oceanic Consultants Nigeria Ltd. (Oceanic), an affiliate of Houston, Texas based CAMAC Energy Inc. for the Energy Searcher drillship drilling contract.

The drillship, Energy Searcher, was under contract at the Oyo-8 well, off Nigeria, for CAMAC Energy. Offshore Energy Today reported in September that drilling operations on Oyo-8 well had been halted due to leaks in control system hoses of the well’s blow out preventer. The drillship resumed normal operations on September 23, 2014 following repairs to those control hoses.

At the time, Northern Offshore expected its consolidated financial results for the third quarter 2014 to be negatively impacted by a reduction of approximately thirty nine days of zero revenues rather than the forty five days previously estimated.

Northern Offshore now says that CAMAC guaranteed Oceanic’s obligations under the drilling contract. Furthermore, the company says it believes that “Oceanic breached various terms of the drilling contract and will be filing a claim for in excess of $50 million associated with this matter pursuant to the arbitration provisions of the contract”.

Northern Offshore says it hopes to have the drillship demobilized out of Nigeria by late January.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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