Thursday 27 April 2017

Supermajor BP is gearing up to put a long-stacked deep-water drilling rig back to work in the US Gulf of Mexico, according to rig owner Seadrill.

The John Fredriksen-controlled company, which has warned of possible bankruptcy, said in a brief statement on Wednesday that it has received notification from BP that it should "commence preparing for return to operations" for semi-submersible West Capricorn.

"The unit will remain on extended standby rate until returning to normal contractual dayrates" on 1 July 2017, Seadrill said.

BP stacked the West Capricorn in the spring of 2016 following a failed appraisal of the discovery once known as Hopkins.

Seadrill laid off at least 112 people in May 2016 related to the rig stacking, accounting for most of the rig's crew. The layoffs were said to be permanent.

The 2011-built rig has been on a standby dayrate of about $316,000 since then. Seadrill's most recent fleet status report, published in February, says the rig was expected to recommence work in "late 2017" at a full operating dayrate of $526,000.

West Capricorn's contract is expected to end in July 2019.

After the Hopkins failure - which led to BP ceding operatorship to Anadarko Petroleum, who renamed the project Constellation - BP was understood to be pausing new exploration in the US Gulf in order to undertake a full revamp of its exploration portfolio in the region.

There was no immediate indication where BP intends to deploy the West Capricorn. BP declined to comment.