Transocean Announces Retirement Of Six Floaters

Transocean Ltd. will retire six floaters—five of them in the ultradeepwater category—as it modernizes its fleet.

The ultradeepwater floaters include GSF Jack Ryan, Sedco Energy, Sedco Express, Cajun Express and Deepwater Pathfinder. A sixth vessel, the deepwater floater Transocean Marianas, will also be retired.

All of the vessels had been cold-stacked. Transocean said the rigs will be classified as held for sale and then be recycled. The company said it would take a $1.4 billion impairment charge in third-quarter 2017.

“We continue to enhance the quality of our fleet through the addition of new, high-specification assets, and the retirement of older, less competitive rigs,” Jeremy Thigpen, Transocean’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We remain committed to providing our customers with the most technically capable and highest quality ultradeepwater and harsh environment assets in the industry, and will continue to objectively evaluate our rigs and high-grade our fleet as the market evolves.”

FLNG Hilli Episeyo Departs Keppel Shipyard

FLNG Hilli Episeyo departed the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore on Oct. 1, Golar LNG Ltd. confirmed.

Final marine commissioning for the vessel will be accomplished by Keppel at a deepwater anchorage, the company said in a statement. Hilli Episeyo is on track to leave Singapore between Oct. 15 and Oct. 20.

Subsea 7, Schlumberger Win Contract For Ophir Energy’s Fortuna FLNG

Ophir Energy has awarded the upstream construction contract for the Fortuna floating LNG (FLNG) Project to Subsea 7’s Subsea Integration Alliance and to Schlumberger’s OneSubsea, the company said on Oct. 2.

The contract is structured as an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract for the subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines and for the subsea production systems scope of work.

The scope of the EPCIC will deliver 440 million standard cubic feet per day of gas through infrastructure comprising four wells, three into the Fortuna Field and one into the underlying Viscata Field, located at an average water depth of 1,790 m (5872 ft).

The planned delivery of first gas in 2020 and work will commence at final investment decision (FID).

As part of the shareholders’ agreement, announced in November 2016, at FID Ophir Equatorial Guinea (Block R) Ltd., an Ophir Energy subsidiary, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortuna joint venture, comprising Ophir and OneLNG.

“With the full suite of upstream and midstream construction contracts now awarded this completes another milestone to FID. The government is a key stakeholder in the Fortuna project, and I am pleased that the local content requirements in these contracts will help to further develop the state of Equatorial Guinea. Fortuna, West Africa’s first deepwater FLNG Project, is expected to FID before the end of 2017,” Ophir CEO Nick Cooper said.

—Staff Reports

Offshore