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Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Seadrill Partners received a notice of force majeure issued by Tullow Ghana for the West Leo drilling contract. The West Leo was most recently drilling for Tullow on the TEN development offshore Ghana. Seadrill disputes that a force majeure circumstance exsists.
The notice calls for the force majeure to have gone in effect on October 3.
Tullow claims this field is subject to a drilling moratorium by the government of Ghana due to the ongoing arbitration proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to determine the delineation of a disputed border.
Irrespective of whether that is correct, additional Tullow operated fields within Ghana, where the West Leo has previously operated under the contract, are not subject to such arbitration proceedings. However, as part of its claim, Tullow has asserted that a further drilling moratorium applies to these additional fields, although no satisfactory justification has been provided.
Consequently, Seadrill Partners strongly believes that the grounds required for a force majeure claim have not been met.
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