By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 23 -- Atwood Oceanics Inc., Houston, has been awarded two new drilling contracts for its Atwood Southern Cross marine drilling rig.
Oil Fields Ltd. (OFL) awarded Atwood a $60,000/day contract to drill a well off Israel. Work will begin in mid-August and is expected to take 30 days to complete.
Before starting that project, however, Atwood will upgrade the rig to Italian requirements and undergo Italian inspections, estimated to take 5-10 days, in order to begin drilling off Sicily and Calabria for AGIP SPA, a unit of Italian state-owned energy conglomerate ENI SPA, following the Israel job.
AGIP will pay rig mobilization costs to Sicily from Israel and $550,000 for the upgrades.
The AGIP contract is for two wells—with a third well option—to begin when the OFL project is completed. The AGIP work will take an estimated 60-90 days.