Odfjell Drilling has announced a series of bookings for its Deepsea Yantai rig, as OMV and Shell look to secure the unit for drilling and well decommissioning work in the North Sea.
On Monday Odfjell (OSLO:ODL) reported the signing of a contract with OMV Norge for the use of the Deepsea Yantai to drill one firm well at Eirik in PL817 in the North Sea, plus one optional well “in 2023 or 2024.”
The scope of the firm work is estimated to take 60 days and will commence in Q1 2023.
The Eirik award infers OMV will not use the optional extension provided under an existing contract for the Maersk Intrepid.
The explorer booked the rig last year on a one-well basis to drill a high pressure, high temperature exploration well in the Oswig prospect in Block 30/5C, but appears to have pushed back the drilling of Eirik into next year.
In addition, Odfjell announced a contract with Shell’s Norwegian unit for use of the drilling rig to permanently plug and abandon nine wells in Norwegian waters.
The scope of work spans four locations across the Knarr and Gaupe fields, and will take an estimated 145 days beginning some time in Q3-Q4 2023.
The drilling firm did not provide a value for either contract.
Delivered in 2019, the semi-submersible Yantai is designed for harsh environment deployment and the first rig of its type to be used by the Norwegian drilling operator.
Capable of working at water depths of up to 1,200 m, the unit has a loading capacity of 4,000 metric tonnes in all operating conditions and is fully winterised for operation in all waters, including an arctic environment.
The agreements follow the award of another firm, five-year contract with Aker BP for the Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible rig, beginning in early 2025 and worth between $620 million and $730m.
The award is subject to the approval of Aker BP’s planned projects, though specific fields and developments were not specified.
Recommended for you
