Ithaca Contracts ADTI for Drilling Operations

Ithaca Contracts ADTI for Drilling Operations

Ithaca Energy Inc. announces that it has contracted the services of Applied Drilling Technology International (“ADTI”), to manage development drilling and completion operations on the Greater Stella Area (“GSA”) under “turnkey” contract arrangements. ADTI is a subsidiary of Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor.

In line with Ithaca’s strategy for de-risking key development workscopes, the ADTI turnkey contract locks in the expenditure and performance requirements of the core drilling operations. ADTI has played a central role in all aspects of the GSA well planning and design work that has been completed over the course of 2012. The drilling campaign is anticipated to commence in Q2-2013 using the high-spec Ensco 100 heavy duty jack-up rig.

The drilling campaign involves the completion of four wells on the Stella field prior to start-up of production. Each well is anticipated to take approximately 80-90 days to drill, complete and clean-up test. The joint venture partners in the Ithaca operated Greater Stella Area are Ithaca Energy (UK) Ltd (54.66%), Dyas UK Ltd (25.34%) and Petrofac Energy Developments UK Limited (20%).

Mike Travis, Greater Stella Area Project Manager, commented: “The award of the ADTI contract represents an important step in the Company’s approach to reducing GSA project execution risk. ADTI has a long and established relationship with Ithaca, having successfully and safely completed turnkey operations on seven of the Company’s operated wells over recent years. ADTI has a highly experienced drilling team in place to manage execution of the campaign and we look forward to the commencement of drilling operations in this quarter.”

[mappress]
Press Release, April 8, 2013