Western Drilling Ltd rig coming out of mothballs

[maui4marko]

>> TapRootTree can you dig up the operator behind this?

WESTERN DRILLING LIMITED SECURES CONTRACT

31 October 2013

New Guinea Energy Ltd (ASX: NGE) is pleased to announce that its 50% joint venture with Maps Tuna Limited, Western Drilling Limited (WDL), has signed a contract with a third party for the use of WDL’s SL 7 Heli Rig and camp (Rig) within Papua New Guinea (PNG).

WDL has agreed terms for a single well that would see the Rig deployed for approximately 150 days, with an option for a second well that could extend the contract by another 150 days. Mobilisation of the Rig is planned for the fourth quarter of 2013.

NGE Chief Executive Officer, Grant Worner commented:
“We are delighted that deployment of the drilling rig will provide employment opportunities for the people of PNG while supporting the growth of the oil and gas industry within the country. In the current economic conditions, junior explorers are finding it difficult and expensive to access equity funding for their activities. The dividends that NGE will receive from WDL from this contract will be a welcome source of additional revenue in 2014.”

[maui4marko]

WDL’s OIME SL 7 1000 HP heli-portable drilling rig, which was acquired for US$7.1 million on March 2011, is suited to the challenging terrain of Papua New Guinea and is one of the only independent rigs available.

The rig is optimised for move with a medium-lift helicopter in loads of less than four tons.

It is a basic, mechanically powered (rather than electic) rig that is well suited for conditions in the country and when fitted with a topdrive, represents the best balance between portability and capability for drilling.

The rig will is able to drill to depths in excess of 4000 metres with 4 inch drill pipe.

[Tree]

Aloha Maui,
You're up late. Closed down the Tiki on Devil's Night again??
Clues within imply that the third party is not a Jr. explorer.
More on this within a reasonable timeframe.

[Spartina]

Soy sauce up sleeve...

[Palm]

Aloha Maui, You're up late. Closed down the Tiki on Devil's Night again?? Clues within imply that the third party is not a Jr. explorer. More on this within a reasonable timeframe.

Interesting that NGE's comments from it's quarterly update provided by MauiVOnMarko don't include a paragraph from the official PR filed with ASX.  The ASK PR has this at the end:

"In the current economic conditions, junior explorers are finding it difficult and expensive to access equity funding for their activities. The dividends that NGE will receive from WDL from

this contract will be a welcome source of additional revenue in 2014.”

Last we knew both of IOC's rigs are within PRL 15. Might this be for Wahoo or Tri?

http://fortbridge.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/asxnge31102013.pdf

[petrengr1]

Aloha Maui, You're up late. Closed down the Tiki on Devil's Night again?? Clues within imply that the third party is not a Jr. explorer. More on this within a reasonable timeframe.

Interesting that NGE's comments from it's quarterly update provided by MauiVOnMarko don't include a paragraph from the official PR filed with ASX.  The ASK PR has this at the end:

"In the current economic conditions, junior explorers are finding it difficult and expensive to access equity funding for their activities. The dividends that NGE will receive from WDL from

this contract will be a welcome source of additional revenue in 2014.”

Last we knew both of IOC's rigs are within PRL 15. Might this be for Wahoo or Tri?

http://fortbridge.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/asxnge31102013.pdf

Check out this string from last August- Post #3- http://shareholdersunite.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=4443&highlight=Western+Drilling

I hope this means they will be moving the Western rig to Wahoo. They say it is capable of drilling in excess of 4,000 meters (13,000 + feet). Wahoo will be a shallow well so the rig is more than capable of drilling Wahoo. In fact it could even be used to drill Raptor which is the deepest prospect that I know of on IOC's Prospect list.

IOC's Rig 2 is also heli-portable and can drill even deeper than the Western rig. If PRE is not going to bring in a rig it might be best to have the Western rig at Wahoo and IOC's Rig 2 at Raptor.

I wonder if PRE will try to contract a locally available rig (Western?) or bring one from South America? I think Western Drilling has two of these heliportable rigs in PNG and I think they are more or less identical.

[Stavros]

I noticed the Western rig is capable to drill to 4,000 meters with 4 inch drill pipe.

I was under the impression that all of IOC's recent deep wells had much larger drill pipe.

Is there any implication in this regard? Perhaps 4 inch drill pipe is ok for shallow wells but not for deep wells where pressure drop would be high in a smaller pipe?

[ArtM72]

Easier to handle high pressure with small bore I suspect. Small bore should let you get deeper fa aster with limited horsepower, more suited to discovery/delineation than production.

[petrengr1]

I noticed the Western rig is capable to drill to 4,000 meters with 4 inch drill pipe. I was under the impression that all of IOC's recent deep wells had much larger drill pipe. Is there any implication in this regard? Perhaps 4 inch drill pipe is ok for shallow wells but not for deep wells where pressure drop would be high in a smaller pipe?

There are no implications to be drawn from the drill pipe size. When they say 4" they probably mean 4 1/2" which is probably the most common size and the same size as used by IOC. In order to increase the depth capacity of the rig they some times go to 3 1/2" drill pipe to decrease the weight the rig must support.

[Stavros]

Thanks as always Pet for your insights and clarifications.

Enjoy your weekend!

To my opinion Mr Kavo will soon attend another IOC-sponsored cocktail party to celebrate two LNG Project agreements

+ PNG LNG with XOM, OSH, Santos et al
+ Gulf LNG with Total, OSH, and very possibly XOM ... unless RDS tries to trump them