QP awards contracts for drilling rigs for North Field Expansion Project

Qatar Petroleum has awarded contracts for eight offshore jackup drilling rigs required for the North Field Expansion Project. 

The drilling rigs are planned to be mobilised and ready for drilling activities starting from January 2020, QP announced Wednesday. Contracts for six of the eight rigs were awarded to Gulf Drilling International (GDI), while the contracts for the remaining two rigs were awarded to Northern Offshore Drilling Operations Limited, operating out of the United States of America. The contracts are awarded for committed terms ranging from two to four years, with exercisable options to extend the drilling programme durations if required.The drilling programme planned for the eight rigs is a major component of the expansion project to increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77mn tonnes per year (tpy) to 110mn tpy.The scope includes the drilling and completion of 80 new wells from eight wellhead platform locations. Contract awards for jacket fabrication were already made earlier in April 2019.On the announcement, HE the Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, also the President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said, “This award package is the latest in a series of steps in Qatar Petroleum’s plan to execute the North Field Expansion project. We are pleased to have our National Drilling company GDI take part in this important project.”Al-Kaabi said, “This award is another important milestone towards delivering on QP’s long term strategy of increasing Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77mn tpy to 110mn tpy, which is progressing well and according to plan on all fronts.” Qatargas is entrusted with executing this mega-project on behalf of Qatar Petroleum. As the world’s premier LNG company, Qatargas has a well-proven track record of delivering such major projects and in operating various onshore and offshore facilities in the North Field with world class reliability and operational excellence.