Offshore drilling contractor Diamond Offshore announced its semisubmersible rig Ocean Apex has commenced a two-well drilling campaign for Woodside Energy in Australia.
The rig recently underwent a five-year special periodic survey at the Seatrium shipyard in Singapore and was mobilized to Australia for a string of drilling projects that will keep the rig Down Under through the first quarter of 2025.
"Following the Woodside work, there is a long line of work secured across multiple operators in Australia that will see the rig committed into the late first quarter of 2025, and potentially through the third quarter of 2025 if options are exercised," Diamond Offshore said.
According to Diamond Offshore's most recent rig status report dated August 8, the Ocean Apex will work for Woodside until October, when it will begin a new assignment for Inpex that's slated to run through July 2024.
After that, Ocean Apex will begin a new drilling job for Santos in Australia, which has five priced option wells with an estimated duration of 160 days from July 2024 through February 2025.
The 2014-built rig will then go onto work for Chevron—also in Australia—with one priced option well with an estimated duration of 40 days, wrapping up in March 2025.