Norway’s Statoil ASA reported it will cancel its contract with Transocean Ltd. for the Discoverer Americas ultradeepwater drillship.
The drillship has been on contract with Statoil since 2009, supporting Statoil’s exploration activities in East and North Africa and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Statoil said it “was, in the current environment, unable to secure additional activity for the rig for the remainder of the contract period, ending in May 2016.”
Tore Aarrebert, head of rig procurement, said, “Discoverer Americas has been a very good performer for Statoil, contributing to test deepwater and ultradeepwater prospectivity in Tanzania, Egypt, and the Gulf of Mexico and appraising the multiple high-impact discoveries in Tanzania.”
Statoil, in fall 2014, used the drillship to make its seventh discovery on Block 2 offshore Tanzania with the Giligiliani-1 finding 1.2 tcf of gas in place (OGJ Online, Oct. 14, 2014). Afterwards, the drillship was to move to the Kungamanga prospect in the central part of the block.
