SHELL TO ADD NOBLE RIG IN NIGERIA

June 4, 1990
Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria will put a third Noble Bawden Drilling (West Africa) Ltd. rig to work in Nigeria, where it is stepping up exploration/development in response to a government drive to boost oil production. Noble Bawden will provide a modified rig to drill in the inland waterways of eastern Nigeria under a 3 year contract with an option to extend yearly. Noble Bawden will modify its 25,000 ft capacity Lewis Dugger posted barge to work in downhole environments of as much

Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria will put a third Noble Bawden Drilling (West Africa) Ltd. rig to work in Nigeria, where it is stepping up exploration/development in response to a government drive to boost oil production.

Noble Bawden will provide a modified rig to drill in the inland waterways of eastern Nigeria under a 3 year contract with an option to extend yearly.

Noble Bawden will modify its 25,000 ft capacity Lewis Dugger posted barge to work in downhole environments of as much as 15,000 psi. It will move the unit to Nigeria in the fourth quarter.

Modifications will include installation of automatic pipe racking, top drive, and advanced drilling fluids solids control.

Shell and Noble also intend to begin contract talks for use of the Chuck Syring posted barge, presently in the Gulf of Mexico.

Noble Bawden expects to begin moving that rig to Nigeria early in the fourth quarter, pending a definitive agreement and completion of modifications.

Shell also has under contract a Noble Bawden jack up and a posted barge.

In 1989, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.-Shell joint venture increased its oil production to 900,000 b/d. That was a 29% increase from 1988.

During the past 4 years, the NNPC-Shell combine has added more than 700 million bbl to Nigeria's oil reserves.

Much of the additional volume was the result of better seismic data, made available by recording and processing techniques developed at Shell's research center.

During the next 4 years, Nigeria hopes to increase crude oil reserves to 22 billion bbl from 16 billion bbl, while hiking production to 2.4 million b/d from 1.85 million b/d.

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