Significant' deal hailed by Schlumberger. Aberdeen Press & Journal January 29
SCHLUMBERGER has clinched a two-year contract to provide subsea completions management services to Shell Expro covering two drilling rigs working the Central and Northern North Sea sectors.
The work is being channelled through the Aberdeen arm of Schlumberger Oilfield Services, which will tap into other group subsidiaries for various services as required.
The Schlumberger team involves the following units: Schlumberger Integrated Project Management; Testing; Dowell; Maxpro and Camco.
The range of services covered under the deal range from cased hole services to slickline operations to coiled tubing, plus systems testing.
The ultimate value of the contract depends on how much the packaged service is used. But it will involve a core management team, who will tap into expertises as required. Schlumberger Oilfield Services marketing manager in Aberdeen, Dave Crowley, said: "It is dependent on the level of rig activity and covers two rigs nominally.
" It is the most significant work to come our way in the past six months as far as management of well services is concerned."
Shell Expro said this contract will parallel similar work carried out by Halliburton.
The Schlumberger team starts work next month.
Meanwhile, Schlumberger Sedco Forex rigs Drillstar and Sedco 711 remain in the Cromarty Firth, but in warm rather than cold stack. This means they are available for business at short notice, with substantial crews still retained. Work is currently being bid.
And the company's Sovereign Explorer will in a few weeks head for the Atlantic Frontier to start a deepwater drilling programme, once upgrade work is completed at Invergordon.
The big semi-submersible will be capable of working in 4,500ft of water compared with 3,200 previously.
Another drilling company, Transocean, yesterday turned in year-end figures showing a substantial lift in operating revenues ... $1.089billion in 1998 versus $891million the previous year. Pretax income more than doubled from $217million to $487million.
The group said last year was a record and that utilisation of its fleet of rigs and drillships reached 99% during the third quarter.
But it warned that 1999 could be tough, given that 15 of its 20 rigs were scheduled to come off contract by the end of the year.
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