A joint venture comprising Ivorian National Oil Company Petroci and Eni Cote d’Ivoire has selected Italian multinational oilfield services company Saipem as its partner for drilling works offshore the Ivory Coast.
Saipem will provide drilling services including its drillship, Deep Value Driller, as part of a $400 million contract signed with the Petroci and Eni joint venture. The seventh-generation drillship, built in 2014, is one of the world’s most modern and will play a crucial role in maximizing upstream activities for Petroci and Eni according to Saipem.
The award of the contract falls under efforts by Petroci and the Ivorian government to increase partnerships with international companies to boost oil and gas investments and reserves to address local, regional and global energy needs.
The move follows Petroci signing a production sharing contract with Tullow Oil for exploration in Block C1-803 offshore in late 2022 and Eni making a discovery of 2 billion barrels of crude oil and 2.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2021.
Saipem says the new contract boosts the company’s presence in the Ivory Coast where the firm is conducting drilling activities in the Baleine field and has led the discovery of oil and gas reserves leveraging its 10000 and 12000 drilling vessels.
