Halliburton beats Schlumberger for Cairn work
Halliburton has interrupted Schlumberger's winning streak in Cairn India contracts by bidding lowest for a tender to drill 87 development wells at Rajasthan block RJ-ON-90/1.
This month (November) Halliburton and Cairn signed a Heads of Agreement to drill the 87 wells over two years at the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya (MBA) fields. Each well will be drilled to around 1200 metres below surface, completed and multi-phase 'fracked' to extract oil from tight reservoirs.
Unconfirmed reports say Halliburton bid less than $200m to win, beating off competition from Weatherford, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes (GE) who also bid by the September 29 deadline. Cairn declined to comment.
Schlumberger, Baker and Halliburton also bid by the extended October 30 deadline in a separate tender to drill seven 'firm' wells over two-years with an optional one-year extension. Based on the 'firm' well results Cairn might want 11 'optional' wells drilled, possibly converted to 'appraisal' wells.
Cairn and Schlumberger meanwhile signed a separate Heads of Agreement (HoA) end-October for a contract to drill 81 development wells at the Aishwariya-Barmer Hill and Raageshwari Deep Gas fields, according to industry sources. Estimated to be worth around $280m, Baker and Halliburton also bid by the extended August 21 deadline.
In August, Schlumberger beat sole rival Halliburton to win an estimated $250m end-to-end services contract to explore eastern offshore shallow water block KG-OSN-2009/3.