Tender rig


Tender Assisted rigs are considered as one of the most efficient and economical type of rig for development, work over or Plug&Abandonment. They are composed of a support vessel and a self contained drilling rigs. The vessel are typically equipped with storage facilities, living quarters, power generation facilities, cranes, and helideck. Tender vessel are typically flat bottom barges or semi-submersible however in some instance, it was used a jackup- or semi-submersible rig or liftboat.
Tender assisted is being considered for various production drilling activities in shallow, medium or Deepwater as well as infill drilling, workover or P&A.

Factory Drilling

Tender assisted are particularly suitable for high volume of wells with similar design and where downhole risks are limited. The drilling package have been continuously improved over 40 years of experience and optimized for rig move and skidding and are generally operated by experienced crews who developed themselves on this type of unit and gain an in-depth knowledge of the equipments and processes. The drilling package are evolving with the latest innovations in term of automation and equipment with the primary focus to improve the safety and efficiency for the client.
In Thailand for example, a tender rig manages to perform 2 days of work activity in 24hrs thanks to offline work.
In shallow water, main competition for Tender Assisted are the Jack Ups. However Tender Rigs will remain the drilling unit of choice for the following cases:
Tender assisted rig offers the possibility to work in deepwater above and beyond the jack up rig capacity.
Several project took place over the past 20 years as per below list coupling tender along TLPs, SPAR, Platforms or Compliant Towers:
  1. TLP West Seno-Indonesia- 1,000m WD- 150 MMBOE/ 28 wells / 7,500-tonnes
  2. SPAR Kikeh SPAR-Malaysia- 1,300m WD - 500 MMBOE / 24 wells / 39,000-tonnes
  3. CT Tombua Landana- Angola- 365m WD- /38 wells / 76,000t Deck+ 56,400t four-legged CPT
  4. TLP Okume- Equatorial Guinea- 500m WD- 400 MMBOE / 13 wells / 11,500-tonnes
  5. Platform KBB- Malaysia- 137m WD - 2.2 Tscf / 12 wells/ 17,000-tonne Deck+ 12,300 tonne jacket
  6. TLP Total-Moho Nord- Congo- 650m WD / 17 wells /14,600-tonnes
  7. TLP Papa Terra- Brasil- 1,190m WD - 700 MMBOE/ 13 wells / 23,000-tonnes
  8. TLP Malikai- Malaysia- 500m WD - 108 MMBOE/ 24 wells / 27,500-tonnes
  9. CT BBLT- Angola- 396 m WD / 40 wells /top side: 40,000-tonnes
  10. Ca Rong Do -Vietnam 320 WD
  11. Chissonga- Angola - 1,200 WD

    Noteworthy papers in Onepetro

Jean-Christophe LE GUEN- Tender Assisted Drilling: A World First Approach to Reactivate an Idle Platform Rig in Deepwater Angola- publication description OTC Asia- Kuala Lumpur 2020
Marvin Gary Rutland |Veerawit Benjaboonyazit | Puwadech Chatporntanadul | Kawin Intrachai | Meth Follett | Thanawee Kreethapon | Chatchai Kongdachudomkul - Efficiency Improvement and Effective Sand Control Completion Unit by Drilling Rig in Zawtika M9 Development Field - IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition, 27-29 August 2018, Bangkok, Thailand
Jean-Christophe LE GUEN - Contractor/Operator collaboration results in light weight plug and abandonment package for long term P&A campaign- Dec 4, 2018 publication description SPE Synopsium- Kuala Lumpur 2018
Wong, J., Sarawak Shell Berhad |Wong, K., Sarawak Shell Berhad | Yeap, F., Sarawak Shell BerhadAwakening A Sleeping Dragon - Semi Submersible Tender Assist Rig Start Up- 2018 OTC Conference paper
Jean-Christophe LE GUEN - Tender Assisted Drilling: a versatile and economic solution to develop fields in Mexico publication date Apr 7, 2016 publication description PECOM 2016- Villahermosa- Mexico
Jean-Christophe LE GUEN- Tender Rigs and TLP for Deepwater Environments publication dateNov 6, 2015 publication description IADC- International Deepwater Drilling- Conference and Exhibition- Rio De Janeiro
Jean-Christophe LE GUEN- Planning, Implementation and Development of an Operation Team in a Newbuild Project : Challenges and rewards publication date Nov 3, 2015 publication descriptionIADC- Critical Issues- Asia Pacific- Conference and Exhibition- Singapore
Dennis Dennay- Self-Erecting Tender Rig Combines Performance and Safety-
Stig Botker, Terje Karp et al. 2001. Wellhead TLP with Tender Assisted Drilling, Offshore Technology Conference, 30 April-3 May 2001, Houston, Texas, 12988-MS,
MATHIESEN, R. 1989. The TENDER ASSISTED DRILLING - NPD EXPERIENCE, Offshore Europe, 5-8 September 1989, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 19248-MS,

Innovation over the past 50 years

1994- Introduction of Semi tender for harsher & deepwater environement
2000- Introduction of offline activity for offline pipe making.
2003- Introduction of Quad mast - to improve tripping speed
2007- Introduction of offline logging - enabling logging on a well while drilling on other well
2010- Introduction of offline coil tubbing
2015- Introduction of Managed Pressure Drilling technology, combined with a drill string conveyed subs based continuous circulation system & dynamic Managed Pressure Cementing
2016- Introduction of new coupled body system between Tender and TLP
2018- Introduction of light well P&A drilling package
2019- Introduction of hybrid solution using tender vessel coupled to a platform rig
2020- Introduction of world’s first purposebuilt drilling tender to operate in the North Sea type weather conditions, the SSDT™ 5000NG design