MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russian-U.K. oil venture OAO TNK-BP (TNBP.RS) Wednesday said it has awarded more than $3 billion in contracts for drilling and workover rigs.
The contracts included $1 billion-worth of long-term contracts for TNK-BP's own drilling and workover companies.
Other companies obtaining contracts include Integra Drilling, the Orenburb Drilling Company, and Catobneft, or CAToil.
Companies obtaining contracts in the workover tender include Obnefteremont, Catobneft, or CAToil, SKRS, the Belorussian Well Stimulation and Capital Repair Company, Permnefteotdacha, Incomneft, and two TNK-BP workover companies.
The contracts typically have a term of three and five years with options for TNK-BP to extend them, the company said.
"We have now secured the build of the rigs needed to deliver our production goals on a long-term basis," said Tim Summers, chief operating office at TNK-BP. "Eleven new high tech drilling rigs and 15 new sidetracking rigs will start to work for us in the course of 2008."
The contracts included, among others: 53 drilling and sidetracking contracts; 211 workover rig contracts; 26 additional new drilling and sidetracking contracts. As a result, a third of TNK-BP's fleet by the end of 2008 will be new.