UK oil and gas player Premier Oil has chartered a Valaris drillship for its Brazilian operations.
In its operational update on Tuesday, Premier Oil said it had chartered the Valaris DS-9 drillship. The rig, formerly known as Ensco DS-9, is of the Samsung 12000 design and was delivered in 2015.
Premier Oil will use the Valaris DS9 drillship to drill the Berimbau/Maraca stacked prospects on Premier’s operated Block 717 (CE-M-717) in the Ceara Basin.
According to the company, the well is scheduled to spud in the third quarter of 2020 and is targeting an unrisked resource of 300 mmbbls gross.
Premier is the operator of the block with a 50 percent interest. Apart from CE-M-717, Premier operates the CE-M665 block with a 50% stake, and it also has a 30% ownership in Total's CE-M-661 block.
Info on Premier Oil's website shows that drilling in Total's block is expected in 2021, where two wells will test in excess of 500 mmbbls of the combined gross prospective resource.
Premier did not provide details on the expected duration nor on the value of the drillship contract.
According to Bassoe Offshore, the Valaris DS-9 is currently on a contract with Total in Brazil. The Total contract, with an estimated day rate of $160,000, is scheduled to complete in mid-June 2020, per data on Bassoe Analytics.