Saipem bags $400 million for new drilling deal

Italian oilfield services provider Saipem has been awarded a new contract in Ivory Coast worth $400 million for a recently chartered seventh-generation drillship.

Saipem revealed earlier this week that it had been awarded a drilling contract offshore Ivory Coast by the Joint Venture comprising Eni Côte d’Ivoire and Petroci. This deal is worth $400 million and the value is to be considered gross of the leasing costs of the Deep Value Driller drillship, which will be used for the operations.

According to Saipem, the contract includes the use of the 2014-built Deep Value Driller drillship, “one of the most modern in the world,” for which Saipem entered into a three-year firm bareboat charter agreement recently with the company Deep Value Driller. This contract may be extended by up to approximately a further one-year period.

“Saipem is thus strengthening the competitiveness of its fleet by leveraging its consolidated expertise in the selection and management of technologically advanced vessels,” explained the Italian giant.

In February 2023, Deep Value Driller confirmed the start of reactivation activities for the drillship. These activities are expected to be completed during the summer of 2023 upon which the drillship will be delivered to Saipem.

Svend Anton Maier, CEO of Deep Value Driller, commented: “We are very pleased to enter into a contract with Saipem, a reputable operator in the ultra-deep water segment. The Deep Value Driller is one of the newest and most modern drillships in the world, and we expect the vessel to be one of the key contributors to Saipem for their drilling campaigns in the years to come.”

The Deep Value Driller drillship is of GustoMSC P10000 design. It is capable of operating in water depths of up to 10,000 ft and its maximum drilling depth is 40,000 ft. This drilship can accommodate 210 people.

Saipem believes that the award of the contract for the Deep Value Driller drillship represents an important consolidation of the firm’s presence in the Ivory Coast, a strategic area where the company is currently executing the project for the development of the Baleine oil and gas field.

Saipem contributed to the discovery of the field thanks to the drilling activities of the Saipem 10000 and Saipem 12000 vessels. The Baleine East 1X well was drilled using the Saipem 12000 drillship. The well reached its final depth of 3,165 m measured depth, in a water depth of about 1,150 m.

Regarding Saipem’s recent activities, it is worth noting that the oilfield services provider is pooling resources with Eni to add renewable fuels to its arsenal, which would be used for its drilling and construction vessels.

The company also entered into two new credit facilities in February 2023, totalling approximately €860 million (almost $925.2 million) to further strengthens its financial structure and liquidity.

In addition, the Italian giant revealed two contracts in January 2023 – one in Brazil and one in Norway – worth approximately $900 million. This came after the firm secured new offshore contracts with a total value of approximately $1.2 billion for work in Guyana and Egypt.

Saipem also recently launched a new asset integrity management system for offshore energy operators and confirmed its participation as a technology partner in Snam and Baker Hughes’ operational tests at the Snam natural gas compression plant in Istrana, Italy.