Nigeria Offers 10 Oil Blocks for Investors

In line with its pursuit of promoting investment in the downstream energy sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria will next April offer 10 lucrative oil and gas blocks for exploration.The government said bids for the acreages, which include three offshore oil blocks that were not taken up at the 2005 Bid Round and seven deep offshore blocks relinquished by some multinational companies, would only be accepted from investors who have entered into commitments to invest in one downstream project or the other.Projects targeted by the government, whose worth must not be less than $2 billion, include refineries, gas pipelines, independent power plants and ethanol production plants.

The three offshore blocks that will be on offer are OPLs 289, 471, and 281, while the seven deepwater blocks included 50 percent of the Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 212 where Shell’s Bonga oil field was discovered and 209 where ExxonMobil’s Erha oil field was discovered.
Effort is said to be intensified by government to make sure opportunity is extended to the people of the Niger Delta. According to a DPR director, "this is the very key…We want a mixture of the government and the private sector to bid from the Niger Delta,”.

Full Report here: FG Offers 10 Oil Blocks for Downstream Investors

Were You Counted?

I waited since yesterday for any message on how we'll be counted as Nigerians on duty out on oilwell drilling operational sites without nothing. Nigeria is holding the first census after decades of failed attempts. The long-delayed five-day head count, which began Tuesday, 21-March-06, is supposed to be well planned and prepared for, but it seems the reverse is the case.
National Population Commission Chairman Samu'ila Danko Makama said at a news conference recently that "all arrangements humanly possible" had been made "to conduct an accurate, reliable and acceptable census." How about nigerian oilfield workers? Out here alone, from the POB figures, there are over 70 Nigerians who (according to a friend) have been de-nigerianized for not counted as Nigerians and over 15 rigs are drilling presently in the country.

From what we hear, the census has already been marred by violence: At least five people were reported killed in an ethnic clash Saturday over census boundaries in southwestern Ondo state.
In northern Nigeria, census officials rioted over pay in at least three towns, witnesses said.

Well, while we continue digging to add to the country's wealth, we think we deserved to be counted.

Devon signs Transocean drillship, offshore Brazil

This piece was posted by Crudediggers' anonymous guest, 've not verified the source but the info is worth circulating to all Crudediggers.
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(South America) - Devon Energy Corp. has awarded Transocean Inc.'s fifth-generation, ultra-deepwater drillship Deepwater Discovery a minimum three-year contract for drilling operations offshore Brazil.Under the terms of the drilling contract, which is currently expected to begin in November 2008, Devon has the right within one year from signing of the contract to convert the primary term from three years to four or five years.

Click here for full details: => Devon Signs Transocean

After a long logging Job

Four days of wireline logging job was quite hectic out here.
Once again I publish for your pleasure some shots from DWP.













DWP at night---------------------------------- Slb group at work





Lucky in action -----------------------------Okey of Geoservices

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Global SantaFe $1 bill. Deal

This looks like the era of fat deep offshore drilling operations deals. So far TransOcean and GSF are blazing the trail, whose next?. Here we go with the latest from GSF:
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HOUSTON, March 2, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Worldwide oil and gas drilling contractor GlobalSantaFe Corporation (NYSE: GSF) today announced that it has entered into a letter of intent with a customer to provide a new ultra- deepwater, semisubmersible drilling rig under a seven-year agreement valued at approximately $1 billion.

GlobalSantaFe has contracted Keppel FELS Ltd. to build the new rig, to be named the GSF Development Driller III, at its Singapore shipyard for delivery in early 2009. The estimated construction cost is approximately $590 million, including shipyard costs, owner-furnished equipment, project management costs and general contingencies.

GlobalSantaFe President and CEO Jon Marshall said, "We are very pleased to be able to expand our ultra-deepwater fleet with a state-of-the-art newbuild rig backed by a seven-year commitment that extends to 2016."

Full Story here => http://www.globalsantafe.com/invest/frames/newsfr.html

Life On Board DWP-1

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Today, I share with you recent photos from Deepwater Pathfinder drilling in Nigeria's deepwaters.












------------------------Night time on board DWP---------------------














Schlumberger Wireline ---------------------------Geoservices Reps

The Chevron-TransOcean $1.7 bil. Deal

This was sent in as a comment by an anonymous visitor to this site and I think it's a great piece of information for other CRUDEDIGGERS. It's curled from Reuters website published on 01-Feb-06. Credits to my anonymous friend who brought it to our notice, happy reading.
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By Ben Berkowitz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil major Chevron Corp. on Wednesday said it awarded a drilling contract to rig operator Transocean Inc. that will lead to the construction of a new deepwater drillship for Chevron's use.
The companies also signed contract extensions for two deepwater drillships currently being used by Chevron. The three deals together are worth $1.7 billion. The Chevron deal came one day after BP Plc gave Transocean a three-year contract extension on a rig worth $569 million.
Analysts said the deals are an acknowledgment that oil companies know they need to become more aggressive in the next few years about deepwater drilling opportunities, in areas that are relatively underexplored.
"The most significant thing of all is the fact that major oil companies indicate by what they're doing that they see a tight rig market, not just medium-term but also long-term," said Stanford Group analyst Philip Dodge said.
"I'm sure everybody is looking at what they need to find over the next few years to keep their production from going down, and one of the top priority places is deepwater," he said.

The contract for the new ship is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2009, and Chevron will have its exclusive use for five years.
Construction of the ship, set for a Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Cop. Ltd. yard in South Korea, will require a capital expenditure of $650 million.
Chevron exercised a one-year option on the Discoverer Deep Seas starting around January 2008 and signed a two-year extension on the rig starting January 2009. It also signed a two-and-a-half-year extension for the Cajun Express starting July 2007.
The strong demand from oil companies has also pushed dayrates substantially higher -- over the $500,000 per day mark in some cases -- and spurred oil companies to contract out rigs years in advance. "One of these numbers is going to be a peak," Dodge said. "I don't think it's $520,000 (the BP deal), but I'd be surprised if it was over $700,000."

Source/Full Story: REUTERS