Maersk Oil Qatar with new contract for $211 Million for Gulf Drilling’s Newbuild Jack-Up

The companies of Maersk Oil Qatar and Gulf Drilling International (GDI) stated on February 18, 2013 they have signed a 4-year contract for US$211 million, under which Maersk Oil Qatar is going to contract the Al Jassra, GDI’s Pacific Class 400 jack-up oil drilling rig platform that is currently under construction at Singapore-based PPL Shipyard.

The agreement covers drilling and well work-over activity in the field of Al Shaheen, which is the largest offshore oil field in Qatar. The contract was signed by the Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar, Lewis Affleck, and the CEO of GDI, Ibrahim J. Al-Othman.

Mr Lewis Affleck told: “By working in close relationships with our partner Qatar Petroleum, Maersk Oil has begun to unlock the important potential of the Al Shaheen oil field. We've already drilled in excess of 300 wells, and we expect to drill many more in the years ahead to improve recovery from this huge offshore oil field. We are really pleased that a Qatari-based drilling company is now able to secure the world-class drilling support that we currently search for – and we very much look forward to working with GDI.”

The Al Jassra is going to be 1 of the oil drilling rig platforms used to deliver the current field development plan of Maersk Oil, FDP 2012 that was agreed in November 2012 and calls for the drilling of fifty-one new wells in the field of Al Shaheen.

The oil drilling rig is coming with a 75′ cantilever outreach and is going to secure accommodation for 150 people. It is also going to secure the capacity and chance to drill the extended reach wells that are necessary to access the long thin reservoirs of the filed of Al Shaheen.