Cuba: Scarabeo 9 rig position update, Repsol’s expected spud date slips into 2012

Source: Informante, Namibia   

Rigs love Walvis 

Walvis Bay’s role as a strategic port of call for sea traffic between Asia and the east coast of the Latin American continent is growing. Recently, the newly built oil rig “Scarabeo 9″ called off port limits at the harbor town for a crew change of 250 people and to take in supplies and materials.  Scarabeo 9” was built in Singapore and departed Walvis Bay on Monday for a cross Atlantic voyage to Brazil and finally to Cuba where it will execute its very first drilling contract. The rig’s owner is Italy-based operator Saipem and the local ships agent KLD Shipping facilitated the rig’s call at Walvis Bay.

“Scarabeo 9” is equipped with a dynamic positioning system which in essence renders the use of a conventional anchoring system obsolete. The vessel stays in position by a system of thrusters that keeps the vessel in position according to the required global positioning coordinates. The rig is also self-propelled and does not need a work boat to put it under tow, as the older generation rigs require.

[Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF plans to begin exploratory drilling in Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico at the start of 2012, the firm’s chief financial officer said in a conference call on 10 November.]