Page 10 - MEOG Week 31.indd

MEOG TENDERS MEOG

Kuwait to acquire rigs as it

seeks to expand capacity

KUWAIT KUWAIT Oil Co. (KOC) is preparing to issue a phase in early 2015. This called for production of
tender for the purchase of 24 drilling rigs as part 60,000 bpd by this year.
of plans to increase production capacity in the By 2026/27, KOC aims to increase Ratqa’s
country. output to 120,000 bpd, rising to 230,000 bpd by
Company sources were quoted by the local 2030/31, with heavy oil from the nearby Umm
Alanba media outlet as saying that the tenders Niqa field seen climbing first to 50,000 bpd and
would be issued this week, with the rigs to be then to 80,000 bpd over the same period. A
used in “ongoing projects to boost onshore oil fourth phase would then see Ratqa’s production
and gas production”. lifted to 325,000 bpd while the final phase envis-
In Q3 last year, the company announced ages output from the two fields totalling 430,000
plans to order 24 rigs, though this was pushed bpd.
back because of undisclosed internal reasons, Baker Hughes and Halliburton have also
with Zawya reporting that the rigs in question awarded rig contracts over the past 12 months
were HP750, HP550 and HP1000 units. for efforts to increase production from on- and
Kuwait has been attempting to maintain offshore areas respectively.
highly ambitious capacity targets of 4mn bar- Meanwhile, Ensign Energy Services
rels per day by the end of this year and 4.75mn announced in late July that it had acquired Hall-
bpd by the end of 2040, up from the current iburton’s 40% ownership in the Trinidad Drilling
3.1-3.2mn bpd. In late 2019, the 2020 target was International (TDI) joint venture for $33.4mn.
reported to have been pushed back to 2040. TDI owns and operates five drilling rigs in Mex-
KOC has made progress in recent months, ico, Kuwait and Bahrain.
though, with cargoes finally being shipped from Following the transaction, Ensign now holds
the Lower Fars Heavy Oil Project. Output from 100% of the interest in the rigs held by TDI in
the two fields under the project – South Ratqa Kuwait and Bahrain along with two rigs in Mex-
and Umm Niqa – has now reached a first phase ico. Ensign said: “The two rigs in Kuwait are
plateau of 75,000 bpd since commencing opera- state-of-art ADR 3000+hp-AC super-spec rigs
tions in February. that are on long-term contracts. The one Bah-
The broader Ratqa asset was discovered in the rain 2000hp-AC super-spec drilling rig that was
late 1970s, but efforts to develop the field were part of the JV is also on a long-term contract
largely stifled until the UK’s Petrofac was finally and augments Ensign’s ongoing rig operations
awarded a $4.2bn engineering, procurement & in Bahrain, doubling Ensign’s presence in the
construction (EPC) contract to execute the first country.”™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 05•August•2020