General Thoughts, page-8942

Qatar has significant deep-sea drilling activity primarily focused on the North Field, a massive offshore gas field. This includes the North Field Expansion Project (NFE), which involves drilling 80 wells from eight wellhead platforms. The NFE project aims to increase LNG production and is utilizing eight jack-up rigs for drilling.


Here's a more detailed look at Qatar's deep-sea drilling:


1. North Field and North Field Expansion Project (NFE):

• The North Field is the largest non-associated gas field in the world, located offshore Qatar.
  

• The NFE project is a major expansion of existing infrastructure to extract more gas from the North Field.
  
• It involves the development of four new LNG trains and eight wellhead platforms.
  
• Eight jack-up rigs are being used to drill 80 development wells from these platforms.
  

2. Key Players and Contracts:

• QatarEnergy:
  The state-owned energy company that manages the North Field and its expansions.
  

• Gulf Drilling International (GDI):
  A Qatari company providing drilling services for the North Field, including the NFE project.
  
• Seadrill:
  A joint venture between GDI and Seadrill (which GDI has since purchased) was involved in the NFE drilling program.
  
• Northern Offshore Drilling Operations:
  A US-based company also contracted to provide drilling services for the NFE project.
  
• Valaris:
  An offshore drilling contractor with contracts for drilling in Qatar's Al-Shaheen field.
  
• Japan Drilling Co. (JDC):
  A Japanese company that was initially a joint venture partner with QatarEnergy in GDI.
  

3. Al-Shaheen Oil Field:

• Al-Shaheen is another significant offshore oil field located in Qatari waters, north of Ras Laffan.
  

• It is operated by North Oil Company, a joint venture between QatarEnergy and TotalEnergies.
  
• Valaris and JDC have contracts to provide jack-up drilling rigs for operations in the Al-Shaheen field.
  

4. Deep-sea Exploration:

• QatarEnergy is also involved in deep-sea exploration projects, such as the West Mediterranean exploration project with Chevron in Egypt.