Offshore driller Dolphin Drilling has shaken off an arrest order for its Blackford Dolphin drilling rig which has been subject to court claims for quite some time.
The offshore driller received service of Nigerian court proceedings in an action brought by Technova Africa International in late May.
The Pan African energy and infrastructure conglomerate obtained an ex parte order of arrest against the Blackford Dolphin. At the time, the Norwegian firm claimed that Technova’s claims were ‘without merit’.
On Thursday, Dolphin Drilling said that the arrest order previously obtained by Technova had been lifted. The company added that the claims made by Technova were still being contested.
The rig has also been at the centre of a spat between the rig owner and Nigeria’s General Hydrocarbons Limited (GHL). The Nigerian company is still making attempts to force Dolphin Drilling to complete the work under a terminated drilling contract for the rig and succeeded in convincing the local courts to place an interim injunction on the rig until arbitration regarding the contract between the two was concluded.
The semisub rig owner terminated the contract with GHL for the rig at the end of April after GHL missed payments to Dolphin.
This creates a different problem for the offshore driller as the rig is scheduled to exit Nigeria and prepare for transit to India and begin work for Oil India Limited.
