Songa Offshore has agreed a drilling assignment with Woodside Energy Ltd. that'll see the semi-submersible Songa Mercur bore as many as three wells on Australia's Northwest Shelf in work that could be worth $25 million if all proposed boreholes go down.

Up to 75 days of drilling with possible extensions are in the works, and the contract includes a day rate for the rig waiting around at port while regulators approve the drilling camapign.

The deal follows on from a contract with Australian oil company Santos and means the company's five rigs and one drillship are largely booked for 2009, with only the Songa Saturn without a contract after March 2010.

Company bosses said this week their 30-year-old drilling fleet has steady work through 2010. At a presentation offered to shareholders, company leadership put down worry of rig glut, saying that of the first 15 rigs to become available in the world this year from all contractors, eight are stacked.

“We believe (those rigs will) only be back if they attain a multi-year contract with solid (earnings) cover,” a Songa boss said. The point appeared to be that spare rigs might be too expensive or too old to bring back quickly, which is good for rig rates.

But with world oil demand set to rise to some 100 million barrels per day by 2025 and production set to drop by then to 30 MM bpd, a giant, long-term oil suppy gap is seen keeping rigs in business. Still, citing ODS Petrodata figures, Songa management pointed to 41 drillships, 44 semisubs and 65 jack-ups on order or being built as reason enough to have to actively market three of its rigs for future assignments.

Most existing rigs around the world are booked solid (over 90 percent) until the end of 2010, the figures showed.

In other rig news, Pemex has granted an extension to Pride International for use of the jack-up Pride Tennessee from August to October 2009. The day rate looks to be around $117,200.

The rig’s sister jack-up Pride Wisconsin is set to be stacked after wrapping up its own work for Pemex at the end of August. The semisub Pride South Seas is also understood to have gone idle.

Two other Pride rigs saw their day rates raised from September.