Ekha ready by September this year
ONGC is unlikely to start using the Seadrill-5 (previously known as Ekha) jack-up before May 2007.
Her earlier schedule was to begin a three-year campaign for ONGC in the Mumbai Offshore in November this year. Seadrill-5 is still under repair at the Keppel FELS dockyard in Singapore after she suffered a punch through in January 2006 while jacking up to drill her first well for GAIL-Gazprom at block NEC-OSN-97/1 offshore West Bengal.
The damage was very heavy, says a source. Latest information is that the rig will be ready by mid-September.
Before starting work with ONGC, Seadrill-5 was scheduled to drill two wells for Gazprom at NEC-OSN-97/1 but this contract is now under litigation. Rig owner Seadrill is using the repair opportunity to upgrade the rig.
The rig is not that old, reveals a source. It was built in 1984 which makes it younger than most of the rigs working offshore India.
