Baku, Azerbaijan, June 25
By Ilkin Shafiyev – Trend:
Zena Drilling, oilfield service company subsidiary of Canada’s Zenith Energy, had signed a revised commitment letter regarding the operating lease for a new drilling rig, Zenith Energy told Trend June 25.
The letter for the Genesis BQ500 onshore drilling rig was signed with Bahrain-based services group Olieum Services.
The company had already communicated to the market that it had signed a commitment letter with Olieum for a BQ500 drilling rig on November 1.
However, the new commitment letter included more favourable terms in a number of areas, Zenith said.
Now, the company would be granted a six-year operating lease for the rig, with an option to renew the operating lease for a further six years.
The BQ500 would then be gifted to the company once all payments were made during an operating lease period of twelve years.
There would also be a six-month 'grace period' starting from the beginning of drilling operations during which time the company will not pay any leasing costs.
“We are continuing to implement our stated intention of operating the key equipment required for the long-term development of our asset portfolio,” chief executive of the company Andrea Cattaneo said.
Zenith Energy is the operator of the biggest block of Muradkhanli-Jafarli-Zardab onshore oil fields in Azerbaijan.
The contract for 25 years was concluded with Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR.
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