Petroproduccion to award 2 rig contracts by Fri.

The Petroproduccion production subsidiary of Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador plans to award two contracts by Friday worth a total of about US$92mn to provide nine drilling rigs, Petroproduccion spokesperson Roberto Freire told BNamericas. One contract to provide three rigs to drill new wells on Petroecuador's main oil fields has attracted bids from five companies, including US companies Hargrave, Pool International, Pride South America, HP and China's Sinopec Petroleum. Nine companies, including local companies Drillfor and Dygoil, have bid on the other contract to provide six rigs to recondition existing wells on Petroecuador fields, Freire added. Each contract is for about US$46mn, Freire said. Petroecuador cancelled a contract to hire two rigs from Drillfor to renew drilling activities in the Shushufindi and Lago Agrio oil fields in September. Petroecuador awarded Drillfor a contract in August as part of its emergency plan to rehabilitate its fields and carry out new drilling. However, the deal fell through because the Drillfor rigs did not pass Petroecuador's technical inspections. According to a previous report, the rigs are needed to help Petroecuador meet its goal of boosting output to 218,000 barrels a day by year-end.