For offshore drilling in Indonesia
Essar Shipping, a part of Essar Group, has bagged a contract worth USD 121 million from ConocoPhillips to drill 11 offshore wells in Indonesia.
The company, which bagged the contract 3-4 weeks ago, has already deployed its semi submersible offshore rig, Essar Wildcat for this contract, a senior company official said.
“We are perhaps the first Indian drilling contractor to get an order from an international oil giant like ConocoPhillips. It is very momentous occasion for us as we have beaten some major international firms like Transocean and Maersk to get the contract,” the official added.
The Essar Wildcat has earlier drilled for Gujarat State Petroleum Corp in the Krishna-Godavari basin on Andhra coast.
Before the contract from ConocoPhillips, the rig has been working with Vietsovpetro (a joint venture between PetroVietnam and Zarubezhneft) offshore Vietnam for the past one year.
The oilfield services division of the company has an asset base of about USD 1 billion and it provides contract drilling services to oil and gas companies across the globe.
The division has one semi-submersible rig and 12 land rigs. Besides this, the company is also constructing two offshore jack up rigs, which will be put into operation by end of 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Source: The Economic Times
