Total, Maersk Ink $133mil Drilling Deal
By James Kon

Bandar Seri Begawan - Pierre Desvoyes General Manager of Total E&P Borneo and Paul Carsten Pedersen, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy CEO of Maersk Contractor, signed yesterday a contract for the provision of drilling services to drill exploration wells in unproven extensions of the Maharaja Lela field, a press release said.

The initial contract term is one year, and the estimated value of the contract is $133mi1.

The signing ceremony was held at Total E&P Borneo B.V's office in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Maersk Contractor will provide a jackup rig of the latest generation being built in The Jurong shipyard in Singapore. It is currently named "BM- 1" before receiving its final name.

The rig is designed to drill very high pressure and temperature reservoirs in up to 375ft of water. It can provide accommodation for up to 120 people. The rig construction is expected to be completed by March 2007. Operations in Brunei should be able to start in April 2007.

The drilling campaign planned by Total E&P Borneo involves three exploration wells in unproven extensions of the Maharaja Lela field.

These wells are expected to be highly pressurised and will require state-of-the-art technology and experience which have been acquired by the Total Group in their Elgin-Franklin field in the North Sea.

Total is operating Block B located about 30 nautical miles offshore Muara on behalf of a joint venture including Shell Deepwater Borneo Limited and Brunei government interests. Block B currently produces 3.7 Msm3/d of gas and 5,000 b/d of oil from its Maharaja Lela field by two unmanned platforms.

With this exploration drilling campaign, Total said it hopes to confirm a significant amount of new reserves that will extend the life of the field and increase its contribution to the production of the country. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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