Leviathan Partners to Ditch Atwood Rig
Thursday 20 July 2017
Noble, Delek and Ratio decide to go with another unit for upcoming drilling in giant Israeli gas field.
Noble Energy is ditching a contract with Atwood Oceanics for a drillship working off Israel as the US independent and it partners line up another rig for further drilling.
According to local partner Delek Group, the partners in the giant Leviathan gas field have decided to terminate the charter of the Atwood Advantage early and have already decided on a replacement.
Delek said operator Noble had informed it and the other partner Ratio Oil Exploration of “the possibility of contracting with a drilling rig at significantly lower costs that those of the Atwood Advantage”.
The drillship is currently finishing off the Leviathan-5 appraisal well and was then due to move on to finish off the Leviathan-7 appraisal probe.
However, Noble advised that the partners should ditch the Atwood unit and go with another, as-yet unidentified rig. The new unit will drill the lower part of the Leviathan-7 and Leviathan-3 appraisals to total depth as well as complete production drilling on the Leviathan field.
Although not giving much away about the identity of the new target rig, Delek said it would be capable of drilling “deep targets, if such deep target drilling in the Leviathan leases is approved by the Leviathan partners”.
Noble planning another appraisal well at Leviathan
The Atwood Advantage first drilled the top portion of Leviathan-7 to around 2900 metres before heading to Leviathan-5 and drilling it to total depth of around 5200 metres. The plan is to drill Leviathan-7 to total depth of 5100 metres.
Leviathan-7 sits in some 1630 metres of water in the Leviathan South I/14 lease in around 120 kilometres off the coast of Haifa.
Both wells are targeting the Oligo-Miocene layers and drilling of the two combined was expected to take around seven months – although excluding completion costs.
Leviathan-5 was set to cost $77 million and Leviathan-7 $71 million, for a total budget of $148 million. Delek said this week that the total cost of Leviathan 5 and the upper part of Leviathan-7 is expected to amount to $106 million.
Noble operates Leviathan on 39.66% with Delek, through Delek Drilling, on 45.34% and Ratio on 15%.