Page 11 - NorthAmOil Week 21 2022

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil

Transocean holds naming ceremony for

Deepwater Atlas drillship in Singapore

GLOBAL TRANSOCEAN recently held a naming cere- Transocean ordered the two drillships from
mony for its Deepwater Atlas drillship in Singa- Jurong in 2014 and they were initially scheduled
pore. The company posted about the ceremony for delivery in 2017 and 2018, but ran into several
on LinkedIn this week, noting that the Deepwa- delays in the subsequent years. Most recently, it
ter Atlas was the world’s first eight-generation was agreed that the first of the two drillships
drillship. would be delivered in December 2021, with the
The Deepwater Atlas is one of two newbuild second following in May 2022.
eight-generation drillships – along with the Deep- Both rigs are due to be deployed in the US
Both of Transocean’s water Titan – built by Sembcorp Marine’s Jurong Gulf of Mexico once they are ready to enter ser-
new drillships are set to Shipyard. The rigs are equipped to handle pres- vice. The Deepwater Atlas has been contracted
be deployed in the US sures of 20,000 psi and 3mn pound (1,360-tonne) to Beacon Offshore Energy for its high-pressure,
Gulf of Mexico. hookloads – both representing industry firsts. high-temperature (HP/HT) Shenandoah devel-
In a video also posted to LinkedIn this week, opment. That work had been due to begin in the
Transocean’s CEO, Jeremy Thigpen, said the two third quarter of 2022 but according to Transo-
rigs had “all kinds of bells and whistles that the cean’s April fleet status report, it has been pushed
industry’s never seen” that were going to enable back to the fourth quarter.
the company to access previously inaccessible Meanwhile, the Deepwater Titan has been
oil reservoirs. Also speaking in the video, Trans- contracted to Chevron for work in the Gulf.
ocean’s president and chief operating officer, Transocean said, also in a LinkedIn post around
Keelan Adamson, added that the features on three months ago, that drydocking of the Deep-
the rigs would result in a reduction in the time water Titan had been completed. That rig is due
required to drill deepwater wells, thus helping to to begin operations in the first quarter of 2023,
bring down total offshore well costs. according to the latest fleet status report.™

ENERGY TRANSITION

Sempra advances CCS project at Cameron LNG

LOUISIANA SEMPRA has announced this week that its sub- sources, and our goal is for this facility to set the
sidiary Sempra Infrastructure had signed a par- gold standard for safe and permanent CO2 stor-
ticipation agreement with TotalEnergies, Mitsui age,” said Sempra Infrastructure’s CEO, Justin Bird.
& Co. and Mitsubishi to develop the proposed The Gulf Coast has seen increased interest
Hackberry Carbon Sequestration (HCS) project from companies seeking to decarbonise their
in south-western Louisiana. The carbon capture operations through carbon sequestration. Also
and storage (CCS) project is designed to address this week, Talos Energy and Carbonvert finalised
emissions from the existing Cameron LNG the expansion of their joint venture for the devel-
export terminal as well as its planned expansion. opment of an offshore CCS project on the Texas
Last year, the developers of the HCS project coast to include Chevron.
submitted an application for a Class VI injection For Sempra, the tentative HCS participa-
well permit from the US Environmental Protec- tion deal marks the most recent in a string of
tion Agency (EPA) for permanent storage of up developments around its LNG business. Ear-
to 2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of carbon dioxide lier this month, the company signed a heads of
(CO2). However, the HCS could be expanded agreement (HoA) with Poland’s PGNiG, poten-
to include three injection wells, giving it the tially paving the way to finalise 20-year offtake
eventual capability to store about 89mn tonnes agreements for 2mn tpy from the Cameron
of CO2. Sempra said the project could reduce LNG Phase 2 expansion and 1mn tpy from the
Cameron LNG’s Scope 1 direct emissions by proposed Port Arthur LNG export terminal in
about 15%. Texas. (See NorthAmOil Week 20)
Sempra views the HCS project as a starting Sempra also signed an HoA last month with
point for its push into net-zero solutions. Cameron LNG partners TotalEnergies, Mitsui
“This project is expected to be among the and Japan LNG Investment to develop a fourth
first North American carbon capture facilities liquefaction train at the facility under the Phase
designed to receive and store CO2 from multiple 2 expansion.™

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