Equinor has awarded a two-year firm contract worth $335m (Nkr3.69bn) to Northern Ocean Wind, a subsidiary of Northern Ocean, for the deployment of the Deepsea Bollsta rig on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
The contract is set to commence in late 2025 and includes five one-year extension options.
The Deepsea Bollsta will be operated by Odfjell Drilling, which currently manages three other rigs for Equinor including Deepsea Aberdeen, Deepsea Atlantic and Deepsea Stavanger.
Equinor Drilling and Well senior vice-president Erik Kirkemo said: “We are pleased to continue our cooperation with Odfjell Drilling, who has demonstrated a strong safety and performance culture. This will add flexible capacity to our drilling portfolio.
“On average we have 25 active drilling operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Rig capacity is important for us, we plan to deliver 50–70 increased recovery wells and 20–30 exploration wells annually going forward.”
The Deepsea Bollsta, a sixth-generation harsh environment rig, is currently stationed in Africa, having drilled in Namibia but has prior operational experience in Norway.
Equinor Exploration and Production Norway executive vice-president Kjetil Hove said: “We have an ambition to maintain our production from the Norwegian Continental Shelf at a high level towards 2035, supplying the energy that Europe demands.
“Our ability to continuously drill new wells is at the heart of this. There is still a large remaining resource potential in our producing fields. We also see attractive exploration opportunities in Norway.”
In related developments, Equinor recently announced an oil and gas discovery near the Fram field in the North Sea.
The discovery, estimated to contain 13–28 million barrels of oil equivalent, was made approximately 10km north of the Troll field.
The Rhombi prospect revealed petroleum in both the main well and a sidetrack, with slightly more than half of the find comprising gas. This marks the first discovery in the area this year, apart from an appraisal well in a previous discovery.
