Equinor awards nine well drilling rig deals worth $253m to Transocean

Norway’s Equinor has awarded offshore drilling contractor Transocean a contract extension for a firm drilling programme comprising nine wells and options for another two, the company said on Tuesday.

Equinor said that the firm part of the contract extension for semi-submersible drilling rig Transocean Spitsbergen, with an estimated backlog of $181 million, is expected to begin in October 2023 and conclude in April 2025. The total value of the contract, awarded on behalf of the Haltenbanken West Unit and Halten East licences and including options, is estimated at around NOK 2.4 billion ($253.3 million), the company said in a statement.

The rig is scheduled to start the drilling campaign in the autumn of 2023 for three production wells for the Haltenbanken West Unit, which is part of the Kristin South area in the North Sea.

Following that, six production wells are planned for Halten East, which will be tied into the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea, before considering another two wells on Kristin South. The whole drilling programme, including options, is estimated to last for slightly around two years.

“Transocean has over an extensive period demonstrated that they deliver safe and efficient drilling operations for Equinor. We have therefore signed a long-term contract with them for a drilling programme for Halten East and Kristin South,” Geir Tungesvik, executive vice president for Projects, Drilling & Procurement at Equinor, said in a statement.

“We are pleased that we have now established predictability for these two operated licenses. Thanks to the framework agreement with Transocean, we had an efficient process for both parties, truly leveraging the effect of our long-term collaboration,” he added.

Transocean Spitsbergen already has a framework agreement with continuing options and has been drilling for Equinor on a continuous basis since 2019.