Vantage Drilling jackup Sapphire Driller has been secured by Trident Energy for a new campaign offshore Equatorial Guinea. The work scope consists of two firm wells and five options, commencing in the second quarter of 2021.

 Operators Tullow Oil and Eni are both understood to be close to announcing rig contracts for drilling campaigns offshore Ghana, both of which will commence next year. Both will utilize drillships during their campaigns. Tullow requires a unit for approximately 550 days, while Eni is reported to be planning a two-well plus options campaign. 

Eni is scheduled to recommence drilling later this month with ultra-deepwater drillship Saipem 12000 off Mozambique. The drilling campaign at the Coral project was suspended in April due to the Coronavirus pandemic and will recommence in the second half of December. It is understood that the campaign will keep the rig busy until at least the middle of next year with options for further work available thereafter. 

Shelf Drilling jackup Baltic is now expected to resume operations offshore Nigeria with Total in January 2021. Operations were suspended during early July 2020. Meanwhile, jackup Trident VIIIi s expected to complete its contract with Unitech Nigeria in around 10 day’s time. 

VAALCO is planning to begin its next drilling campaign at its Etame field, off Gabon, in late 2021 or early 2022. The operator has previously used jackups to drill at the field. 

Africa Energy has issued drill stem test results for the recent Total-operated ultra-deepwater Luiperd-1X discovery on block 11B/12B offshore South Africa. According to Jan Maier, the company’s VP or Exploration, the well, drilled by harsh-environment semisub Deepsea Stavanger in 1,800m of water, intersected 85m gross sands of which 73m was net good-quality pay in the main target interval, and also thicker than expected.