OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGIES & MARKETS
The Stena Carron drillship is also working in the Guyana/Suriname Basin. Over the past year, Stena Drilling has secured new
contracts and contract extensions for its rigs in Guyana/Suriname and on the UK Continental Shelf.
These three KPIs will be critical in helping the industry lower
emissions from its offshore drilling operations. This means the
offshore sector needs to deploy low-carbon drilling solutions in
the immediate future, particularly as operators focus on reach-
ing their emission-reduction targets, Mr Reinertsen said. To that
end, Stena Drilling announced in January 2022 that its fleet had
achieved ISO 50001:2018 accreditation , which specifies require-
ments for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improv-
ing an energy management system . The intended outcome is
to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in
achieving continual improvement of energy performance and the
energy management system.
“It’s important that we continue to improve our practices, and
that means improving our drilling techniques to reduce the time
spent on a well. The less time you spend on the well, the fewer
emissions you have. I think most major drilling contractors have
been moving in that direction,” Mr Reinertsen said.
Stena Drilling has also been focusing its activities on Guyana,
with the Stena DrillMAX and Stena Carron drillships working in
the area. The Guyana/Surname region has been a major offshore
hotspot in recent years, dominated by ExxonMobil through a slew
of discoveries since May 2015, most recently with Fangtooth and
Lau Lau, announced in January.
Other operators are also starting to make progress there.
Following positive results from the Kawa-1 exploration well,
CGX Energy and Frontera Energy announced in February that
they would focus on exploration at the Corentyne Block offshore
Guyana in 2022.
“I think anyone in the offshore drilling industry would agree
that what we’ve seen coming out of Guyana and Suriname are
very promising results that have already led to a lot of activity,”
Mr Reinertsen said. “The area’s certainly a hotspot, and we all feel
optimistic that this high level of activity will continue.”
32 Stena has also recently picked up various contracts for its two
semisubmersibles on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). While
operator investment in the region is still low, Mr Reinertsen
said he believes interest could improve in the coming years.
“We’re seeing more work manifest on the UKCS instead of being
postponed year-on-year. That’s a cause for optimism, to actually
see more activity. We’ve seen some of the bigger fields owned
by the larger operators now going through the approval process
internally, and there have been rumors that several operators
are relooking at the figures to see what’s feasible. That’s another
reason to be optimistic.”
Developing mature assets
In recent years, the UKCS has become somewhat of an after-
thought in the North Sea drilling landscape, especially compared
with the prolific Norwegian sector. The bulk of conversation on
the UKCS has centered around decommissioning, plugging and
abandoning mature assets. However, things are changing with
the Ukraine crisis highlighting the need for energy security, both
in Europe at large and particularly in the UK . The latter imported
37% of all oil and gas consumed in 2021, according to the latest
Business Outlook released on 29 March by the Offshore Energies
UK (OEUK), formerly Oil & Gas UK.
Although the UK government has said it is still committed to
developing renewable energy for a low-carbon future, the coun-
try is encouraging more short-term oil and gas exploration and
development to help reduce its reliance on foreign imports.
“Given all that’s going on, the industry has a very important role
to play,” said Deirdre Michie, CEO of OEUK. “What’s become clear
is that energy security is a matter of national security. We can be
part of the solution here.”
The group’s Business Outlook noted that the number of approv-
als for new oil and gas projects on the UKCS has been falling
M AY/J U N E 202 2 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R
OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGIES & MARKETS
consistently through the past decade . One reason is the maturity
of the basin has limited the investment opportunities under con-
sideration. Additionally, operators and investors have been con-
cerned about the level of political and public support for offshore
exploration. Only 80 million BOE of new UKCS resources were
approved for development in 2021, of which 35 million BOE were
for gas fields. Developing these reserves will take approximately
$975 million (£750 million) of new capital investment from opera-
tors, according to OEUK.
“We know the basin itself is in decline, and we need to actively
manage this by investing in new projects, as well as existing ones.
If we don’t, we’ll be even more reliant on other countries – up to
around 80% of our gas and around 70% of our oil (by the 2030s).
That’s a heavy exposure,” Ms Michie said.
With 10 new fields set to start up in 2022 and early 2023, OEUK
expects sufficient production to come on stream to maintain out-
put in line with 2021 . Combined with the fields that started pro-
duction in late 2021, this will result in approximately 450 million
1,80 1,800 0
1,600 0
1,60 ToToTotatatal l Approved
Appr oved New Re
Reserves serves (boe
(boe)) New reserves on the UKCS are expected to reach its highest
level this year since 2018. With the UK government pushing
to lessen its reliance on imported oil and gas, short-term
production in the region could increase. Source: NSTA,
Offshore Energies UK
1,400 0
1,40 1,200 0
1,20 1,000 0
1,00 8000
80 6000
60 4000
40 2000
20 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022E
2022 E
BOE in new reserves (split roughly 50/50 between oil and gas) and
peak production rates of around 250,000 BOED. This would offset
declining production from existing assets, according to OEUK.
Further, the group is forecasting a 10% increase in exploration
and development drilling on the UKCS this year compared with
last year , as well as a 5% increase in UKCS oil and gas produc-
tion over the next two years. The rise in production is attributed
to operators accelerating smaller work scopes and launching
brownfield infill drilling campaigns to extend the productive life
of mature assets.
D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R • M AY/J U N E 202 2
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