Gulf Drilling and Northern Offshore the winners as Qatar Petroleum awards eight jackup contracts

Qatar Petroleum has announced the award of contracts for a total of eight jackup drilling rigs required for the North Field Expansion Project, with Qatar’s Gold Drilling International (GDI) and US-based Chinese firm Northern Offshore the winners.

GDI was awarded contracts for six of the eight rigs, while two were awarded to Northern Offshore, with the contract terms ranging from two to four years and including additional options.

The drilling program is scheduled to commence in 2020 and is a major component of the expansion project to increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 MTPA to 110 MTPA.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs and the president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, commented: “This award package is the latest in a series of steps in Qatar Petroleum’s plan to execute the North Field Expansion project. We are pleased to have our National Drilling company GDI take part in this important project.”

Last month, Qatar Petroleum issued an invitation to tender for what will become the largest LNG carrier newbuilding program in history to support the North Field Expansion Project. It plans to initially order up to 60 LNG carriers to support the production expansion, with a potential to exceed 100 new LNG carriers over the next decade.