Petronas Hires Maersk for Suriname Well
Malaysian oil company Petronas has hired Denmark's Maersk Drilling to sink an exploration well at Block 52 off Suriname, the latter said on June 30.
Work under the contract will commence in the third or fourth quarter of this year and continue for 75 days. The deal is worth $20.4mn, including integrated drilling services, mobilisation and demobilisation fees, and includes an option for a second well.
"It is great to work for Petronas again with a quick reactivation of Maersk Developer for this campaign in the exciting Suriname-Guyana basin," Maersk Drilling's chief operating officer Morten Kelstrup said. "This will showcase our ability to smoothly and efficiently establish operations in new jurisdictions, as Maersk Developer will become the first of our rigs to operate offshore Suriname."
Petronashas a 50% stake in Block 52, which spans a 4,750-km2 area north of Paramaribo where waters range between 50 and 1,100 m deep. Petronas farmed out the other 50% in the project to ExxonMobil in May.