Noble-Voyager

Maersk Drilling has announced that 2014-built drillship Maersk Voyager has been signed by Kosmos Energy to drill the S-5 exploration well . The contract has been novated to Kosmos, from Noble Energy, after a one-well option was exercised on the rig’s current contract.

MAERSK VOYAGER is the last of Maersk Drilling’s present series of four ultradeepwater sixth-generation drillships and is now drilling for Eni on the Offshore Cape Three Points block offshore Ghana. (Source: Maersk Drilling) The drillship has been and remains a versatile vessel design that has proved itself an integral part of the E&P industry’s adventure into deeper waters since Global Marine’s converted CUSS 1 first entered the scene in the late 1950s. Since then, the technologies and sheer scale of these vessels have evolved dramatically to the point where one of the latest sixth-generation ultradeepwater units, to have entered the market—Maersk Drilling’s MAERSK VOYAGER —is a very different creature to its distant forebear. Although still recognizable as two of a kind, Maersk’s Samsung 96K design vessel is a much more potent beast, and its dimensions and capabilities illustrate the concept’s development over the course of almost six decades. The CUSS I—a surplus navy barge named after the Continental, Union, Shell and Superior oil consortium that originally developed it with Glomar in 1956 as a technological test bed for nascent oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico—came in at a length of 79 m (260 ft), with a width of 14 m (48 ft) and the initial ability to drill in up to 122 m (400 ft) of water. It was a truly remarkable vessel for its time, which would, of course, go on to drill the famous Project Mohole in the 1960s. As in all areas of the offshore business, however, more than 50 years of evolution means technologies have advanced the boundaries far beyond what was originally thought possible. The MAERSK VOYAGER r, delivered to Maersk Drilling early in 2015, is nearly three times as long at 228 m (748 ft) and also nearly three times as wide at 42 m (138 ft). Able to drill in up to 3,600 m (12,000 ft) of water, it can drill wells to a total depth of 12,000 m (40,000 ft).

Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract from eni Ghana Exploration and Production Ltd., an eni subsidiary, for employment of the newbuild drillship MAERSK VOYAGER. The firm contract period is 3.5 years with an option to extend by one year. The total estimated revenue from the firm contract is USD 545m including mobilisation and escalations. MAERSK VOYAGER will work on the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) Project offshore Ghana with expected commencement in July 2015.“We are very pleased to be chosen by eni and its partners Vitol and GNPC for this project offshore Ghana and we look forward to working together with the OCTP JV over the next 3.5 years. West Africa has been a strategic focus area for Maersk Drilling, since we embarked on our deepwater expansion, and with this contract we expand our presence in the promising West African deepwater market,” says Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO in Maersk Drilling and member of the Executive Board in the Maersk Group. Maersk Voyager is the last in a series of four ultra deepwater drillships in Maersk Drilling’s rig fleet. The rig was delivered on 6 February 2015 from the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje-Si in South-Korea. The four drillships represent a total investment of USD 2.6bn. Source: http://www.maerskdrilling.com