Valaris rigs embarking on new assignments

Several offshore rigs owned by drilling contractor Valaris are embarking on their new jobs in the Gulf of Mexico, Mauritania, and Brazil while another rig has been moved recently from the UK to Spain where it is stacked.

As informed by Valaris via its social media channels this week, the Valaris DPS-5 semi-submersible started its contract with Kosmos Energy in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on 29 March.

According to Scott Smith, Valaris Rig Manager, the semi-sub has recently completed its 10-year Special Periodic Survey and the annual US Coast Guard Certificate of Compliance inspection. Following the acceptance audit, the rig started its contract with Kosmos Energy.

“All work was completed within the agreed contract commencement window,” Smith added.

Sam McNair, Valaris Operations Superintendent, stated: “The Valaris DPS-5 crew now shifts their focus to delivering operational excellence for Kosmos, building on the same performance which has won the rig the additional backlog from repeat customers.”

The contract with Kosmos was awarded in January 2022 for an estimated duration of 105 days. Also in January, the DPS-5 secured two one-well contracts with Murphy Oil.

The first contract with Murphy is in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and is expected to start in the third quarter of 2022 with a minimum duration of 30 days. This contract has a one-well option with an estimated duration of 90 days. The second contract, offshore Mexico, will start in direct continuation of the first contract and has an estimated duration of 60 days. The work for Murphy is scheduled to end in October this year.

However, before embarking on its first contract with Murphy, which is expected in July 2022, the DPS-5 is scheduled for a short stint with Apache in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico from June to July.

While the DPS-5 has just started a new gig, the 2015-built Valaris DS-8 drillship has recently completed its transit from the UK – where it has been stacked for a while – to Spain. While there, the rig will be stacked and prepared for any potential reactivation in the future.

As a reminder, the rig’s contract with TotalEnergies in Angola was terminated in March 2020 following a non-drilling incident with the blowout preventer (BOP) stack.

Another drillship, the Valaris DS-12, has recently successfully finished its assignment under a contract with BP in Angola. The rig is now ready for its next project in Mauritania.

“Valaris DS-12 has successfully delivered three new wells for BP in Block 31 Angola. Despite challenges during the campaign, the team worked tirelessly to achieve this success,” said Daniel Anderson, OIM.

“Deepwater operations and challenges of the worldwide impact of the pandemic certainly pushed the team to constantly plan, react and maintain a Performance Team culture sharing the successes at each large and small milestone,” Rob Munger, BP Operations Manager, Wells Regions Africa and Trinidad & Tobago.

The 2014-built rig has been working for BP in Angola since September 2021. The contract for operations offshore Senegal and Mauritania, with an estimated duration of 285 days, was awarded in July 2021. The contract started this month and it is expected to end in December 2022, according to Valaris’ fleet status report.

Another drillship, the 2010-built Valaris DS-4, is set to return to the market for a new contract in Brazil. The drillship has recently departed from Las Palmas, Canary Islands where it was reactivated for its next assignment with Petrobras. The contract is expected to start in June 2022 and run until December 2023.

“Valaris DS-4 has departed from Las Palmas to start a new chapter and make history in Brazil after major contractual equipment upgrades, recertification, and adherence to regulatory requirements,” Gustavo Hassan, Rig Manager, said.

Last year, the DS-4 drillship experienced an incident in which the rig broke free of moorings at a port in Scotland. A similar incident also happened to another Valaris rig earlier this year. Namely, the Valaris DS-16 in March broke free of its moorings due to high winds and collided with another vessel.

In other Valaris-related news, the rig owner has recently novated an eight-well job for a deepwater project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico from TotalEnergies to Equinor. Earlier, the receipt of over $400 million of backlog related to this project was uncertain after TotalEnergies had decided not to sanction and therefore withdraw from the project.