Atlantis signs cooperation agreement with China Oilfield Services Ltd.The offshore related company Atlantis Deepwater Technology Holding (ADTH), located in Grimstad in Norway, and China Oilfield Services Ltd. (COSL), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the intention of finding applications for the Atlantis deepwater technology in the upcoming China deep water exploration drilling. The MoU covers all technologies required to enable COSL to use their existing shallow / medium water depth drilling rigs for deep water exploration drilling, as well as a cooperation to further develop and verify the technology for use in deep water field development in China. COSL, which has more than 7000 employees, is the leading provider of oilfield services in the offshore China market. Their services cover each phase of offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production. The company owns and operates 13 offshore drilling rigs, 62 marine support vessels, 5 oil tankers, 6 seismic vessels, 3 Geo-tech survey vessels and offers a comprehensive range of well services. The first objective of the MoU is to define an application for the Atlantis unit stored in Stavanger, which was subject to extensive testing in Norway in 2003, for use in combination with one of COSL’s own drilling rigs. The first full scale Atlantis unit was fabricated and tested in a joint industry project in 2002 and 2003, which was funded by the Norwegian technology program “Demo 2000”, BP Norway, Shell Norway, Angola Block 18 licence (BP / Shell), and indirectly also by Statoil, who became a shareholder in ADTH in 2002. The Atlantis technology is based on the simple principal of establishing an “artificial” seabed at 200-300 meters below the sea surface, using a submerged partly air filled steel tank which is anchored to the seabed with an extended part of the first casing string being used in the well. As opposed to the conventional method of installing all equipment at the seabed, with Atlantis technology all equipment will now be installed at a “shallow” water depth. As a consequence of this, lower rated and more easily available shallow / mid water drilling vessels can be used for deep water operations. If the vessels are not equipped with dynamic positioning system, a so called taut-leg fibre rope mooring system has to be used. This is used today in several deep water operations worldwide and regarded as field proven equipment. In comparison with the cost of drilling deepwater wells with the higher rated deep water drilling vessels, ADTH estimates that significant savings can be made on each well. ADTH is very satisfied with the fact that the first real application of the novel technology could take place in China. Recently China has emerged as an aggressive deep water area, due to the fast growth in the economy and consequential demand for oil. China is now importing about one third of its total consumption and the oil demand is projected to continue to grow rapidly. In order to improve this situation COSL’s parent company CNOOC is now actively seeking the latest technology for deepwater drilling, in order to explore China’s huge deepwater sector. For ADTH, COSL is the ideal partner for bringing this technology into realization, as the company controls all equipment and |
