American oil giant, ExxonMobil has already established that the Stabroek Block holds over eight billion barrels of oil equivalent resources. Since doing so, it has disclosed that there is much more potential to discover in the block. But to do so, it is contracting only the best drillships from Noble Corporation.
According to the Noble, ExxonMobil would be contracting its Noble Sam Croft drillship for six months. The drillship is expected to begin operations in Guyana in the fourth quarter following the execution of its current drilling programme offshore Suriname.
This news agency understands that the Noble Sam Croft which was built in 2014, is currently being used by Apache in Suriname where the company struck a major oil and gas discovery. The discovery was made at the Kwaskwasi-1 well in Block 58, where Apache is operator and holds 50% working interest while Total holds the other 50%.
Noble Corporation said that the contract for the Noble Sam Croft drillship with Exxon had been awarded under the previously-announced Commercial Enabling Agreement (CEA) established earlier this year. The company reminded the drilling agreement covered the ultra-deepwater drillships Noble Bob Douglas, Noble Tom Madden, Noble Don Taylor, and, a few days later, the Hyundai-built Noble Sam Croft.
Noble said that Exxon then decided to terminate the one-year contract for the Noble Sam Croft drillship and transferred it to the Noble Don Taylor, keeping the Noble Bob Taylor drilling for Exxon in Guyana till mid-November 2021.
The Noble Sam Croft, which has then stayed with Apache for longer than initially planned (contract now expires mid-November 2020), will now drill for Exxon, after all.
