In a release sent to Rigzone by the SLB team recently, SLB announced that it has been awarded a major drilling contract by Australian independent Woodside Energy for its ultra-deepwater Trion development project offshore Mexico.
SLB noted in the release that it will oversee the delivery of 18 ultra-deepwater wells using an integrated services approach and AI-enabled drilling capabilities to improve operational efficiency and well quality. It added that the full scope of the contract includes digital directional drilling services and hardware, logging while drilling (LWD), surface logging, cementing, drilling and completions fluids, completions, and wireline services.
Services will begin in early 2026 and be managed through SLB’s Performance Live digital service delivery centers, according to the release, which highlighted that this deal “follows another major contract from Woodside for the Trion development to the SLB OneSubsea joint venture in 2023”.
Woodside is developing the field in partnership with Pemex, SLB pointed out in the release, noting that first production is targeted in 2028.
“With water depths of up to 2,500 meters, the Trion development presents challenging technical conditions for drilling and well construction,” Wallace Pescarini, president, Offshore Atlantic, SLB, said in the release.
“SLB has extensive expertise in ultra-deepwater drilling projects globally and advanced technologies, including AI and digitally enabled hardware, to bring these wells online safely, efficiently, and reliably,” he added.
“We will also leverage the strategic investments we’ve made in local talent and supply chains in Mexico, which will help support the on-time delivery of this project,” he continued.
Rigzone asked SLB for the value of the drilling contract and if the contract will support any jobs or lead to additional jobs.
In response, an SLB spokesperson told Rigzone the company will not disclose the contract value. The spokesperson added that they did not have any specifics to share about the company’s workforce, “aside from we’ve made investments in local talent in Mexico, which will help support the on-time delivery of this project”.
At the time of writing, Woodside has made no mention of the drilling contract on its website.
In a statement posted on its site back in January, Woodside announced that the Trion Project passed a major milestone with a steel-cutting ceremony for the project’s floating production unit (FPU) at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.
Woodside noted in the statement that celebrations for the milestone were held late last year at the HHI shipyard following the award of the FPU engineering, procurement, and construction contract to HHI in June 2023.
“We are pleased to be embarking on this important phase of work with HHI, our contracting partner for the floating production unit,” Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said in the statement.
“The steel-cutting ceremony kicks off a multi-year construction campaign for the Trion FPU, which is the critical path for the development as we progress towards targeted first oil in 2028,” O’Neill added.
In a statement posted on its site in February, SLB announced an agreement between its OneSubsea joint venture and Vår Energi “to deliver a sizeable subsea production systems (SPS) work scope”.
“This award leverages the existing strategic subsea partnership agreement between the two companies for standardized subsea equipment, supporting multiple upcoming oil and gas developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” SLB said in the statement.
Back in January, SLB revealed in another statement posted on its site that it had recently entered into a long-term collaboration agreement with ANYbotics to advance autonomous robotic operations in the oil and gas sector.
During the same month, SLB announced in another statement that it had been awarded “a series of major drilling contracts by Shell to support capital-efficient energy development across its deep- and ultra-deepwater assets in the UK North Sea, Trinidad and Tobago, the Gulf of Mexico, and others”.
In that statement, SLB said the projects will combine its AI-enabled digital drilling capabilities with its expertise in ultra-deepwater environments.
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