Laid up in Port Phillip Bay due to the current pandemic, a huge drilling rig, the Ocean Onyx (operated by Diamond Offshore) is chartered to Beach Energy for a work program in the Otway Basin off Port Campbell.
The Ocean Onyx is expected to be laid up in the anchorage for three months and will be supported by rig tenders operating from a base in Geelong.
The huge drilling rig was transported from Singapore by the Blue Marlin, which is a semi-submersible heavy transport vehicle.
The rig will be onshore-to-offshore drilling off the Great Ocean Road as part of Beach Energy’s $1 billion campaign to drill for gas off the Port Campbell coast after finding success drilling at Nirranda.
Although there has also been an ongoing legal battle regarding the drilling.
