Fugro's Positioning Services for Petronas' Suriname Drilling Program

Dutch offshore services company Fugro has said it has won a contract with Malaysia's Petronas, to provide positioning services for Petronas' exploration program offshore Suriname.

The news comes just days after Petronas said it had discovered hydrocarbons in its Block 52, off Suriname. 

Under the 2-year contract, which has already started,  Fugro is deploying its Starfix precise positioning solution to help ensure safe and efficient transit, anchoring and drilling activities for the program’s semi-submersible rig and support vessels.

"Work on the contract has already begun and executing these services in a restrictive Covid-19 environment has so far posed multiple operational challenges for Fugro," Fugro said.

As an example, the Dutch company explained, both Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago’s international borders were closed ahead of the program’s first rig move in October 2020 but Fugro’s local staff worked with regulators to overcome these hurdles and deliver the surface and subsurface positioning services that PSEPBV needed to safely and accurately position the rig onsite.

As reported last Friday, Petronas said it had made its first offshore discovery offshore Suriname.

The company, as the operator of Block 52, made the hydrocarbon discovery while drilling the Sloanea-1 exploration well.

The Sloanea-1 exploration well was drilled to a total depth of 4,780 meters using Maersk Drilling's Maersk Developer semi-submersible drilling rig.

The exploration well encountered several hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone packages with good reservoir qualities in the Campanian section.

"The well data proves excellent calibration of the hydrocarbon potential of the block. Further evaluation is being undertaken to determine the full extent of the discovery," the company said. Petronas operates Block 52 with a 50 percent stake. ExxonMobil owns the remaining 50 percent.