Aban Abraham spuds Vashishta well
Aban Offshore drillship Aban Abraham is drilling development well VA-DB for ONGC at the eastern offshore deepwater Vashishta field.
Abraham spud the well on October 25 at 11am local time in water depths of 690 metres. She reached location at 6pm on October 22 from the Kakinada Seaports yard in Andhra Pradesh where she underwent repairs on a non-functioning mud pump sensor after reaching India in mid-October.
"I hope nothing else malfunctions!" says a source. ONGC hired Abraham, a 1976-built rig, on June 24 for two years at $105,582/day under a $87m contract.
This dynamically positioned class 2 (DP-2) drillship was previously off Brazil from where she sailed out on July 3 to Indian waters via Cape Town for refuelling and via Singapore for repairs. VA-DB is the first of nine development wells Aban Abraham will drill at the Vashishta and S1 fields.
ONGC estimates Vashishta has 9.56bn cubic metres of recoverable gas and S1 has 6.22bn cubic metres. ONGC hired Halliburton on October 6 to provide integrated services to Abraham and four more rigs.
