State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) last week hired six oil drilling jack-up rigs– two each from Shelf Drilling and Foresight Group International and one each from Greatship India and Jindal Drilling & Industries– on a three year contract.

Greatdrill Chaaru, a 350 ft jack-up drill owned by Greatship (India) Ltd, a wholly owned unit of Great Eastern Shipping Company, was awarded the three-year contract, at an operating day rate of $46,322.

The 350 ft jack-up rigs Vivekanand 1 and Vivekanand 2, owned by Ravi Mehrotra-led Foresight Group International, won the contracts at operating day rates of $46,371 and $46,345, respectively, an ONGC official said.

Shelf Drilling, the world’s largest contractor of jack-up rigs, won contracts for its 300 ft jack-up rigs –F G McClintock and C E Thornton– at operating day rates of $42,458 and $42,402 respectively.

Virtue 1, the 350 ft jack-up rig owned by Jindal Drilling & Industries, part of the D P Jindal Group- was awarded the three-year contract at an operating day rate of $44,662.

Selection process

Since 2014, ONGC has adopted the Quality, Cost, Based Selection (QCBS) for hiring oil drills rigs, a formula that gives 25 per cent weightage to technical and 75 per cent to commercial aspects.

The new rules focussed more on the commercial aspects to reap the benefits of a global over supply of rigs to secure much lower rates. It helped global rig owners to offer their older rigs of over 35 years at lower rates compared to new rigs.

Drilling industry sources said that the operating day rates on the latest contracts of ONGC were higher than the $25,000-26,000 levels finalised last year. “Globally, the operating day rates for jack-up rigs have gone up to as much as $68,000,” said an industry official.

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