General Hydrocarbons Limited awards $96mn drilling contract to Dolphin Drilling

Lagos-based General Hydrocarbons Limited (GHL) has awarded a $96 million contract to Dolphin Drilling (DD) for a 12-month drilling scope offshore work in Nigeria. 

The contract is for the mobilization of the Blackford Dolphin rig and work is scheduled for Q4 2022.  

Dolphin Drilling made the announcement in a statement on October 5.  

Earlier in the year, Dolphin Drilling received a letter of award (LoA) for the Blackford Dolphin rig in Nigeria at $232,500 per day plus a mobilization fee of $12 million, for the GHL project. 

Bjornar Iversen, chief executive officer (CEO) at Dolphin Drilling says: “We are proud to announce the final award of the Blackford Dolphin contract, proving our position in the niche moored semisubmersible market. 

“Dolphin Drilling has attractive assets, a strong team, and a solid platform to leverage on the favorable market development with improved rates.” 

“The contract for Blackford Dolphin underlines the potential of the company and its assets, and we believe Dolphin Drilling will capitalize on the continued expected tight rig market for the rest of the fleet.” 

Earlier in the year, Hawilti announced that GHL would be one of the companies to develop its hydrocarbon assets in 2022. It was said that GHL had formally engaged technical energy solutions company, Century Group for the development and production of their assets.  

Nigeria’s vast population and high dependence on oil and gas have made upstream companies commercially successful.   

Nairametrics had earlier reported that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry’s growth and profitability are dependent on operator pricing and quantity.  

 What you should know 

• General Hydrocarbons Limited is an Oil and Gas services company that started operations in Nigeria in 2009. 
• General Hydrocarbon Limited (GHL) is the lead stakeholder of OML 120, and is redeveloping the Oyo field this year. 
• According to data from Wood Mackenzie, OML 120 lies in Nigeria’s southwestern region, 70 kilometers offshore. Statoil discovered the Oyo oil field in 1996, but it was considered uncommercial at the time. The field was eventually developed by Eni with two subsea production wells tied-back to a leased floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The first production was achieved in December 2009.   
• Dolphin Drilling is best known for its track record in deep water drilling in harsh environments and owns a fleet of three fourth and fifth generation drilling rigs, the Borgland Dolphin, Blackford Dolphin, and Bideford Dolphin.