Noble Black Rhino arrives offshore Nigeria as TotalEnergies targets six extra wells

Noble Black Rhino arrives offshore Nigeria as TotalEnergies targets six extra wells

RIVERS STATE (Nigeria 24) — The ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Black Rhino safely arrived on station at the Akpo Field offshore Nigeria at 06:00 hrs in November 2026.

Its arrival marks a major operational milestone for TotalEnergies’ upcoming drilling campaign.

The high-spec drillship completed an extensive transatlantic transit from the Gulf of Mexico, making a final 738-nautical-mile leg from Côte d’Ivoire before officially entering Nigerian waters on 2 November.

The rig is under contract with TotalEnergies for a four-well programme, with options for six more, lasting approximately 150 days.

The upcoming wells will be tied back into the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading infrastructure.

Crews are conducting final preparations ahead of the first spud. Drilling of well AFE-1X is scheduled for 13 November 2026.

Akpo is a major ultra-deepwater oil and gas condensate field located about 200 kilometres south of Port Harcourt within OML 130 and PML 2, in water depths of 1,100 to 1,700 metres.

#TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria operates the field with a 24 per cent interest, alongside CNOOC at 45 per cent, South Atlantic Petroleum at 15 per cent and Prime 130 Nigeria at 16 per cent.

Discovered in 2000, the field began production in March 2009 and was designed for peak output of around 175,000 to 180,000 barrels of condensate per day. The Akpo West tie-back began production in early 2024.

The #NobleBlackRhino is a Gusto P10,000 design DP3 drillship owned by Noble Corporation, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2014. It operates in water depths up to 12,000 feet, drills to 40,000 feet, and accommodates 210 people.

The deployment has been linked by its promoters to the Tinubu administration’s oil and gas reforms.

TotalEnergies’ leadership told industry briefings at African Energy Week that mobilising the rig took only nine months, compared with upwards of three years previously. They attributed the acceleration to presidential executive orders aimed at removing fiscal and administrative roadblocks.

The administration issued targeted deep offshore executive orders designed to unlock more than $50 billion in dormant deepwater investment, with the stated aim of reversing declining upstream production and raising output. #nigeria24