Gulf Drilling International (GDI), a joint venture of Gulf International Services, has signed a contract with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Qatar to use GDI’s jackup rig Al Khor to drill an exploratory well in 2014 offshore Qatar.

The Al Khor is scheduled to begin drilling well JXQA-1 in block A in 2Q 2014. JX Nippon has an exploration and production sharing agreement covering block A with Qatar Petroleum.