Qatar Petroleum Awards Contracts to Gulf Drilling for North Field Expansion

May 02, 2019

Gulf International Services (GIS) announced that Gulf Drilling International Ltd. (GDI), a wholly owned subsidiary of GIS, has been awarded contracts by Qatar Petroleum to provide six premium jack up rigs for the North Field Expansion project (NFE). Qatar Gas is entrusted with executing this mega-project on behalf of Qatar Petroleum.

GDI plans to finalize an agreement with Seadrill to provide these jacks up rigs under the term of their existing Strategic Cooperation Agreement. The first two rigs contracted for a firm duration of three years are scheduled to commence operations in Q1 2020, the third rig contracted for a firm duration of two years is scheduled to commence operations in Q2 2020 and the last two rigs contracted for a firm duration of three years will commence operations in Q3 2020. 

Additionally, a jack-up drilling rig currently contracted with Qatar Gas that has available options is scheduled to be slotted into the NFE drilling program around Q2 2020 as the sixth rig from GDI.

Commenting on this, Mr. William Ceppi, GDI's Chief Executive Officer, said: "GDI is proud to have been awarded this work by Qatar Petroleum for the North Field Expansion project. We thank Qatar Petroleum and look forward to continuing our safe and efficient operations."

The award comes in line with GIS' strategy to capture new business opportunities that would potentially help increase revenues and ultimately maximize shareholder value.

The drilling program is a major component of the North Field Expansion project designed to increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 MTPA to 110 MTPA. The forecasted drilling scope is for 80 new wells, which will be drilled and completed from eight wellhead platform locations.