Norwegian rig owner Island Drilling has disputed the termination of the Island Innovator semisub contract with Trident Energy for a drilling campaign offshore Equatorial Guinea.
has disputed the termination of the Island Innovator semisub contract with Trident Energy for a drilling campaign offshore Equatorial Guinea.Island Drilling said that Trident did not accurately describe the situation on the rig as there were no critical safety incidents.
The company added that the blowout preventer had been checked and tested by the original equipment manufacturer representative on the rig and declared it safe and ready for operations. Island Drilling added that it was evaluating all legal actions at its disposal to contest the termination.
“To be clear, we do not compromise with safety! Our risk management, built on international risk standards, is well integrated into our planning and preparation processes,” said Roger Simmenes, CEO of Island Drilling.
He added that work permits undergo an additional in-field check to verify compliance with our procedures and regulatory requirements to uphold our safety standards while offshore management conducts daily, weekly, and monthly inspections to verify adherence to international regulations.
Trident Energy awarded the deal for the 2012-built semisub in September 2022. The rig was initially set to do two firm and five optional wells. The oil and gas player exercised three options for the rig, with the last one announced in early September last year.
The third option should have kept the Island Innovator engaged in Equatorial Guinea for approximately 230 days. The drilling work on Block G began in January this year.
The joint venture of Trident and Panoro Energy decided to terminate the rig contract last week because, as they claimed, the Island Innovator was not “operationally in a condition to safely drill the wells.”
The two companies said at the time that they were evaluating alternative options for the recommencement of the drilling campaign, which also includes the Kosmos-operated Akeng Deep exploration well, potentially during the second quarter of the year.
