Ventura Offshore has signed a management agreement with Eldorado Drilling covering the seventh-generation drillship Deep Value Driller, and at the same time has secured a one-well drilling contract with Petronas in Indonesia valued at approximately $58m.

The Oslo-listed contractor stated that it will provide marketing and operations management services for the ultra-deepwater drillship, expanding a managed fleet that already includes Eldorado's Atlantic Zonda. The arrangement extends a business model in which Ventura earns fee income from operating vessels it does not own, complementing the revenue from its directly held rigs and vessels.

The Petronas E&P Bobara contract is worth an estimated $58m, including provisional sums for additional services, although Ventura will receive operating fees rather than booking the full contract value.

The programme adds a further Indonesia job to Ventura's workload. Its SSV Catarina is already working in the country, while the new contract is with Petronas' Bobara subsidiary, the operator of the ultra-deepwater Bobara PSC offshore Papua Barat.

Petronas brought Pertamina and TotalEnergies into Bobara last year, with each taking a 24.5% stake while Petronas retained 51% and operatorship. The block covers roughly 8,400 sq km and was Petronas' first operated deepwater acreage in Indonesia.

The ownership battle for Deep Value Driller played out earlier this year. Eldorado agreed in February to pay $300m for the 2014-built drillship after topping Saipem's previously agreed $272.5m offer, with delivery scheduled for the third quarter. The competitive bidding for the unit came as owners of modern ultra-deepwater drillships have seen sustained demand for high-specification tonnage, with relatively few seventh-generation units available on the market.

The Petronas award also points to continued drilling activity offshore Indonesia, where operators including Petronas have been adding deepwater exploration work in recent years.

Source: Splash247