Falling behind its initial downtime prediction, Transocean Inc. said Monday that its deepwater drillship Discoverer Enterprise remains on location in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at zero dayrate while continuing the investigation with respect to the riser separation which occurred on May 21 (see Daily GPI, May 27).

The shutdown occurred on the BP-operated Thunder Horse field at Mississippi Canyon block 822 in the Gulf. The companies reported no injuries and no hydrocarbons were released due to the incident. In addition, a visual inspection of the wellhead with a remote-operated vehicle showed no wellhead damage.

Initially expected to be down for only two to three weeks from the May shutdown date, the company said Monday it now believes the restoration could be complete “within the next two to three weeks.” Transocean added that a significant portion of the riser string has been recovered and preparations are being made to recommence operations after completing some riser component treatment based on the results of the investigation to date.

As a precautionary measure, the company said it plans to schedule some downtime to inspect the seven other drillships in its fleet that use the same type of riser. However, it does not believe such downtime will be significant. Once the investigation and inspections are complete, the company will determine what modifications, if any, will be required.

The eight Transocean drillships that use this type of riser are the three Enterprise-class rigs (Discoverer Enterprise, Discoverer Sprit, Discoverer Deep Seas), the four Pathfinder-class rigs (Deepwater Discovery, Deepwater Frontier, Deepwater Millennium, Deepwater Pathfinder) and the Deepwater Expedition.

Discussing the impact on the company’s second quarter results, Transocean said the unexpected rig downtime and an approximate $10 million loss of revenue due to the Nigeria labor strike would likely put revenues for the quarter ended June 30 at or slightly below first quarter 2003 revenue levels. Transocean had previously stated that it expected deterioration in its financial results and identified a number of factors that were likely to lead to such decline in results.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.