Deepwater drilling contractor Seadrill and Angola’s national oil company Sonangol, via its joint venture firm Sonadrill, have signed a $161 million contract securing the services of Seadrill’s West Gemini drillship for ten new wells – with the potential for a further eight wells to be drilled as part of the deal.
The 18-month contract has been confirmed by the joint venture company as continuing directly from the close of West Gemini’s current contract.
While Seadrill has not publicly named the ship’s current contractor nor assignment, the company has said its extant work in Angola commenced in November 2021 and runs through to May this year with the option to extend to November.
West Gemini was built in 2010 and is a sixth generation ultra-deepwater drillship. It is the third such vessel to be charted into Sonadrill’s Angolan activities, following two units provided by Sonangol itself- the Quenguela and Libongos vessels- marking the Sonadrill coalition as the premier rig operator in Angola. The news marks a positive upturn not only for Angola’s hydrocarbon industry but for Seadrill’s own prospects, having recently emerged from its second bankruptcy filing in four years.
