Trinidad Drilling Ltd. resumes construction of six drilling rigs

Trinidad and its customer have agreed to resume the construction of six new drilling rigs that were put on hold earlier in 2009.

Contract and schedule
The rigs remain under five year, take or pay contracts with the original customer, and the terms of the contract are unchanged. The drilling rigs are 18 000 ft triple rigs with 1500 hp. AC drawworks and are equipped with the company’s in-house technology and automation. The rigs will be built at Trinidad's rig manufacturing facility, Victory Rig Equipment, and are expected to be completed by the end of 2010; the first rig's delivery is scheduled for the Q1 2010.

Costs
The company estimates that it will take an additional US$ 60 million to complete the construction on these rigs. The customer has compensated Trinidad for the interest on the initial capital spent on the construction of these rigs while they were on hold.

The fleet
The new rigs are destined for operations in the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana, bringing Trinidad's total rig count in the area to 31. Its modern, deep capacity fleet is well suited to unconventional shale drilling. Including these new rigs, the company will have approximately 45% of its fleet operating in the unconventional shale plays.

Following the completion of these rigs, Trinidad will have 53 rigs in Canada, 64 rigs in the US, 7 rigs in Mexico and 1 rig in Chile. The company has 50% of its fleet under long term, take or pay contracts, with an average term remaining of more than two years.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/11012010/trinidad_drilling_ltd-_resumes_construction_of_six_drilling_rigs-/