Twinkle, twinkle, damaged drillship 

Last updated 05:00 11/05/2011 

The $180,000-a-day drillship Noble Discoverer looks destined to spend the winter doing nothing more than 

providing a nightly light show in the waters off New Plymouth. 

The veteran drillship was so badly damaged in a storm off the Taranaki coast that it will be unable to return 

to drilling operations any time soon. 

Instead, it is likely to lie close to shore off New Plymouth while major repairs are carried out to on-board 

equipment, Shell Todd Oil Services confirmed yesterday. 

While only minor damage happened to the vessel during the April 26 storm, other equipment such as the 

mooring system and drilling equipment were damaged when anchor lines snapped. 

Replacement parts are being flown in from overseas. 

Shell Todd had chartered the ship at between US$154,000 and US$158,000 (NZ$184,000 to NZ$189,000) 

a day to drill the Ruru-1 well 40 kilometres off the Taranaki coast. The company would not say yesterday 

whether it was continuing to pay the charter day rate. 

Shell Todd general manager Rob Jager, New Plymouth, said investigations are under way to fully 

understand why the mooring lines failed and what needs to be done to prevent this in future. 

"As safety is the first and foremost priority, and with winter substantially reducing the operating window, the 

vessel may not return to the Ruru well for some time," he said. 

"There is therefore an opportunity for the Noble Discoverer contract holder to enable the vessel to be 

upgraded while it is in port." 

While the presence of the vessel with its big drilling derrick so close to the New Plymouth shoreline is 

turning it into an unlikely tourist attraction, for Shell-Todd Oil Services it is a constant reminder that things 

have turned pear-shaped out at Ruru-1. 

Noble Discoverer arrived in Taranaki waters in January to drill the single exploration well. The project was 

supposed to take up to two months, with the drillship then scheduled to head to Alaska to drill exploration 

wells within the Arctic Circle. 

But it's now heading towards mid-May, and Ruru-1 has yet to reach target depth. 

Energy industry sources say a series of technical problems at the site had delayed drilling anyway, and then 

just after Easter the big storm hit, which snapped some of the Noble Discoverer's anchor lines and forced 

the ship to drop its "riser", the pipe that contains the well's drill string. 

The drillship with 114 people on board still rolled heavily in seven-metre seas, and this is understood to 

have caused further damage. This was behind the decision to bring the Noble Discoverer close to Port 

Taranaki for a full assessment of the ship's condition. 

Noble Discoverer is one of the oldest drillships in the world. Build in 1966 and originally a bulk carrier called 

ROB MAETZIG 

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the Matsuhiro Maru, in 1976 it was converted for the energy exploration operations and renamed Frontier 

Discoverer. 

The name was changed again to Noble Discoverer last year when drilling company Frontier Drilling merged 

with fellow driller Noble Corporation. 

Last year the vessel was at the centre of major controversy when Shell announced plans to use it to drill 

wells north of Alaska. 

Critics slammed the potential greenhouse gas emissions it would emit, and this led to the vessel being 

diverted to New Zealand instead. 

Yesterday's statement confirmed a plan is being developed to completely recover the riser system from the 

seabed so there will be no impact to the environment. But the Noble Discoverer will not be used for this 

recovery work, it added. 

The statement said that in accordance with best industry practice, the Ruru well was safely closed-in before 

the storm hit and is in good condition. 

- Taranaki Daily News

3 comments 

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x #3 08:11 pm May 24 2011 

stos make life miserable for the small contractors with all their pathetic rules and over the top paper work all 

in the name of "safety" but it all comes down to money - they hire the oldest junk drillship because it was 

cheap 

chris frank #2 08:38 pm May 12 2011 

Well done STOS the pros, bring in such nonsense rules as workers cant wear slip on boots on you sites, 

only lace ups etc etc, pretend to be first class... then bring in one of the oldest drilling ships in the world to 

do the work... very modern, well done STOS ...questions... 

Blur #1 10:08 am May 11 2011 

Surprise Surprise,, Who in the industry that has worked in NZ waters could see this coming, odviously 

everyone except Shell. To bring an old moored ship like that here & expect it to handle our waters was 

asking a lot. Most of us old rig workers just laughed when we heard it was coming to drill here. Shell Todd 

say safety is of the utmost importance but hard to believe when they keep bringing in old junkers like the 

Noble Discoverer to our shores. 

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