Two offer ONGC deepwater rigs
Only Transocean and Vantage Drilling have responded to ONGC's tender to hire two deepwater rigs for 21 months each to drill in India's eastern offshore.
By the March 29 (2023) deadline - extended four times - no other bidder bothered to bid. Transocean is offering drillship DD-KG1 is carrying out well completions at the MJ field for Reliance and BP at eastern offshore deepwater block KG-DWN-98/3 at $169,500/day, rising to $330,000/day when the contract extension from September to November 2023 kicks in.
Transocean is also offering drillship Discoverer Inspiration, now drilling in the US Gulf of Mexico for EnVen Energy at $300,000/day and due to come off contract in June 2023. Vantage has also offered two rigs: Platinum Explorer, now drilling for ONGC at KG-DWN-98/2 adjacent to Reliance's 98/3 block at $149,300/day, but expected to come off contract in December 2023.
Also offered by Vantage is West Polaris, managed on behalf of UK-based Aquadrill. Polaris is also drilling for ONGC at KG-DWN-98/2 on a nine-month contract ending in August (2023) at $225,000/day plus GST.
Some suspect Transocean won't confirm the availability of Discoverer Inspiration as mobilising her from the Gulf of Mexico to Indian waters will be expensive. Transocean is also believed to be offering both rigs to other customers.
Diamond Offshore and Noble Drilling were expected to offer rigs to ONGC, which wants to drill 12 wells. But a source says they must have offered their rigs elsewhere as deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling activity has picked up globally.
Neither would have been able to compete with Transocean or Vantage, who both have rigs in Indian waters, he adds. That said, ONGC should be ready to pay at least $400,000/day for each rig - much more than the nearly $350,000/day Transocean quoted for DD KG-2 in this tender's previous incarnation, where ONGC needed only one rig.
ONGC rejected Transocean's offer as too high and scrapped the tender only to revive it now for two rigs, not one.