UK’s drilling waste management firm TWMA has secured a £1.5million contract with Apache on the WilPhoenix drilling rig in the North Sea Beryl field.

As part of TWMA’s waste management solution, the one-year contract will utilize the company’s TCC RotoMill® for offshore processing and EfficientC® for cuttings transfer and distribution. Apache also has another one-year option to extend the current contract.

TWMA Chief Operating Officer, Neil Potter, said: “We have built a strong relationship with Apache over the last five years, and are delighted to have been selected to support on the WilPhoenix project. We also supported a previous drilling campaign on this platform last year and have ongoing contracts with Apache including the provision of EfficientC® bulk transfer services on the Beryl Bravo and Alpha platforms and onshore processing services for those and other Apache installation platforms.”

The provision of bulk transportation involves directly pumping drill cuttings from storage tanks onboard the rig to a supply vessel, then transporting the drilling wastes to an onshore processing facility, TWMA said.

WilPhoenix

The WilPhoenix drilling rig, owned by UK-based offshore drilling contractor Awilco Drilling, has recently resumed contract with Apache, after a spat between the driller and the oil company on whether the rig was ready to drill.

To remind, the rig completed the yard stay in Hartlepool in April. However, at the time, Apache did not agree that the rig was ready to drill nor that Awilco Drilling was entitled to a standby rate.

Awilco said earlier in June that the rig was ready to leave the yard in Hartlepool in order to continue working for Apache with 22 months left under its three-year contract.

The driller then confirmed that the semi-sub WilPhoenix moored at Apache’s drilling location in the UK North Sea, and resumed operations at Apache’s drilling location on the Storr field on Sunday, June 26.

WilPhoenix is one of Awilco Drilling’s two enhanced pacesetter semi-submersibles and is equipped for drilling in water depths up to 1,200 ft. Awilco’s other semi-sub, WilHunter, is hot stacked in Invergordon since July 2015.