Jadestone Energy, an Asia-Pacific focused oil and gas company, has informed that Valaris’ Valaris 247 jack-up rig has arrived on location at the Montara field offshore Australia for an upcoming drilling operation.
Valaris 247 will drill the Skua-11 well side-track at the field, which represents the main activity in Jadestone’s 2025 capital program.
Operations will cover safe decommissioning of the existing SK-11 well, after which a side-track will be drilled higher in the Skua structure to accelerate the recovery of reserves from this field.
The Skua-11ST program is expected to take around 60 days to complete, with an expected initial oil rate of c.3,500 bbls/d when brought onstream and extending the economic life of the Montara field by one year.
The well is expected to cost $62 million, with a forecast payback period of 16 months and generate a 65% internal rate of return, according to Jadestone.
“We are looking forward to executing drilling operations at Skua-11 safely and efficiently. Bringing this well back into production will add to the positive operational momentum we have seen so far in 2025, with group production year to date averaging around 21,000 boe/d, slightly ahead of expectations, even after cyclone related downtime in Australia early in the year.
“The emphasis on high uptime and stable operations is beginning to pay off, as we focus on demonstrating delivery against targets,” said Adel Chaouch, Executive Chairman of Jadestone.
Valaris 247 is a jack-up rig of LeTourneau Technologies Super Gorilla Class, which eneterd into service in 1998. Its maximum drilling depth is 35,000 ft, and it can accommodate 140 persons.