Greenland drilling rig fixed

Published 21.12.2009 09:11:27 by John Bradbury

The prospect of new drilling offshore Greenland has come closer with the fixture of a drillship for an exploration programme there.

London-listed Cairn Energy said today it has fixed the newbuild Stena Forth drillship – a sister ship to the Stena Carron and Stena Drillmax drillships - to begin drilling in the West Disko licence area offshore Greenland in the summer drilling season between June and October next year.

Cairn said the sixth-generation drilling unit,, has been contracted to start next year, subject to government approval.

Stena Forth which is owned by Stena Drilling UK, is due to commence work for Cairn under a six-month sub-let deal from Hess Corporation.

“We are delighted to have secured a rig that allows Cairn to move forward with its Greenland drilling programme in 2010, a year earlier than previously scheduled,” said Cairn chief executive Sir Bill Gammell said. “We are now equipped to commence drilling with a vessel that offers considerable operational flexibility.”

Five wells were drilled off west Greenland in 1976 and 1977 but they were all declared dry in 1978. Interest in the region lapsed until a new well drilled by Statoil in 2000 following reinvestigation of well data by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, which suggested many areas had been abandoned prematurely, Cairn has indicated.

Edinburgh-based Cairn's Greenland interests are held by Capricorn, a wholly controlled subsidiary, and the company signed up for two licences off West Greenland in 2007, Sigguk and Eqqa, and farmed into two more, Atammik and Lady Franklin, which are operated by EnCana Corporation.

Last year Capricorn was awarded another two blocks of West Greenland, Kingittoq, Saqqamiut, Salliit and Uummannarsuaq.

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