Maersk Drilling has won a contract to provide a rig for the phase II development of Nexen Petroleum’s Buzzard field in the central North Sea.
One of the company’s I-class jack-ups will drill three wells on Buzzard with an option for a further nine wells built into the contract.
Work is expected to begin in July 2018 and last 225 days.
Buzzard is one of the UK’s largest producing oil fields.
Lars Ostergaard, chief commercial officer of Maersk Drilling, said: “This is an important win in a challenged market, and we appreciate this opportunity to leverage our extensive experience in the North Sea and further strengthen our good relationship with Nexen.
“We have been awarded the contract by Nexen due to our high efficiency harsh environment rig design that includes offline capabilities as well as our proven track record of delivering high performance and driving continuous improvement.
“By planning and executing work in close alignment with customers we are able to unlock the full performance potential of these large offline capable jack-ups.”