Equinor signs Odfjell semi for long-term offshore Norway drilling program
Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Equinor (ex-Statoil) has contracted Odfjell Drilling’s semisubmersible Deepsea Atlantic to drill three production wells on the Fram and Askeladd licenses in the Norwegian North Sea and Barents Sea.
Value of the contract, due to start next January, is in the range of $150-200 million for six wells. In addition, Odfjell will be responsible for casing running, slop treatment and cuttings handling, ROV operations, and fuel.
Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s Drilling & Welll svp, expected the program to take up to 18 months to complete, before a master framework agreement takes effect, under which the company will attempt to find new assignments for the rig on a continuous basis.
It is a performance-based contract, he added, designed to encourage safe and efficient operations, with an incentive to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.
Currently the rig is working for Equinor on the Visund and Utgard licenses in the North Sea. Thereafter, it will undergo a 10-year-classification.
Early next year, it should start drilling the first of three dual multilateral wells on the Fram field, each with two branches extending from the main wellbore. It will then head north to Askeladd to drill three production wells.
Operations will be supported by logistics bases at Mongstad and Hammerfest, respectively.
05/29/2018
