Naftogaz announces tender to buy 2 semisubmersible floating drilling rigs worth $1.4 billion

National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy has announced a tender to buy two semisubmersible floating drilling rigs to increase its own oil and gas production, the press service of the state holding reported on October 2, 2012.

The press service said that the acquisition of the two rigs will allow the holding to realize its plans on exploration of Prykerchensky shelf, Skifske and Foroske fields and the Pallas field.

The approximate cost of the two new rigs is $1.4 billion, and the year of their production is no earlier than 2012.

The tender was announced on September 28, 2012. The bids can be submitted by October 29, 2012.

According to the report, the acquisition of the drilling rigs will be financed using commercial loans and the funds of the holding, and it will not require attracting budget funds.

According to Naftogaz Ukrainy, the buyback period of the two rigs will be seven or eight years. The economic effect with the current average prices of hydrocarbons will be around $20 billion.

According to a geological study, large deposits of hydrocarbons in the Black Sea basin are at medium depths (from 120 to 1,000 meters).

The primary find for exploration on medium depths is the Pallas field (450-850 meters).

The probable free gas reserves of the Pallas field total around 120 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas (including 86 billion cubic meters of Ukrainian reserves), that of dissolved gas – 8.6 bcm (8.2 bcm of Ukrainian reserves) and 70 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate (over 45 million tonnes of Ukrainian reserves).

It is planned that at the stage of the exploration of oil and gas fields in the Black Sea, around 200 wells from 4,950 to 6,050 meters deep will be drilled.

"The goal can be achieved only if Naftogaz Ukrainy uses highly effective technological equipment for exploration and exploitation drilling," the holding said.

Earlier, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko said that Ukraine expects to get a second self-elevating floating drilling rig, the Nezalezhnist, on November 1, in addition to the operating Petro Hodovanets drilling rig, and later bring their total number to five.