Louisiana-based offshore rig contractor Blake Offshore said today that it has entered into a three-year $156 million contract with Pacific Energy Alaska Operating, a subsidiary of California-based Pacific Energy Resources, to utilize jack-up Blake 151 for drilling in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
The jack-up is expected to be mobilized for transport to Alaska in December, Blake said, “subject to transport availability.”
The rig, a Baker Marine ILC/Skidoff unit design, is currently under contract to Linder Oil in the Gulf of Mexico. It is capable of operating in water depths as shallow as 11 feet and as deep as 250 feet, Blake said.
According to Blake’s Web page, Blake 151 was “refurbished to new in 2006” and has a drilling depth rating of 25,000 feet, three 1600 horsepower mud pumps, 2,000 HP draw works, a Varco TDS-3 top drive and quarters for 53.
In a five-year unit development plan it filed with the State of Alaska, Pacific Energy said it plans to drill as many as three wells with a jack-up rig in its offshore Corsair Unit by the end of 2009.
If its exploration program proves successful, Pacific Energy, which bought Corsair and its other Alaska assets from Forest Oil, could begin permitting commercial production at Corsair as early as the end of 2012.
Editor’s note: see story in April 20 issue of Petroleum News, available online to subscribers at noon, Friday, April 18, at www.petroleumnews.com.
