Odfjell Rig To Stay With Equinor For One Additional Well

Swedish oil and gas firm Lundin Energy has exercised its option for the drilling of one additional well offshore Norway using the Odfjell Drilling-owned Deepsea Stavanger rig.

Odfjell said that it reached an agreement with Lundin for the use of the rig for the drilling of one more well on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

The well has been exercised as part of the options agreed in the contract entered into between the parties in March 2021.

Initially, Odfjell announced that it was given a letter of intent by Lundin Energy for the use of the Deepsea Stavanger rig back at the start of 2021. In the letter, Lundin stated that the contract would be for one firm well and eight optional wells.

This wasn’t to be as the contract, which was signed in March, was changed to three firm wells with an additional six optional ones. According to the deal between the parties, the rig was supposed to start work in the third quarter of 2021, back-to-back with Deepsea Stavanger’s contract with Aker BP.

Since Lundin chose to exercise the drilling of an optional well, the rig will start work on the well at the beginning of January 2022 and, according to Odfjell, be completed before the rig starts its contract with Equinor on NCS in the first quarter of 2022.

Equinor contract for the Deepsea Stavanger is for a firm three wells with an expected duration of four months. Once it starts work for Equinor, the rig will become the third Odfjell rig to join the Norwegian energy major along with its sister rigs – the Deepsea Atlantic and the Deepsea Aberdeen.

Several months ago, Equinor added an additional well to the contract for the Deepsea Stavanger and it will keep the rig with Equinor well into the third quarter of next year.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com