Songa Providing Statoil With a New Rig Type
Statoil has awarded the contract for construction of two new drilling rigs for use on the NCS to Songa Offshore. The contract for the two category D rigs is worth an aggregate USD 2,47 billion for a fixed eight-year charter period. “Stepping up our industrialisation of the NCS we are very pleased to announce that Songa will help realise our industrial approach and we wish to give them recognition for their long-term perspective on this partnership”, says Jon Arnt Jacobsen.
Statoil’s chief procurement officer continuous: “Through joint efforts we intend to rejuvenate the rig fleet on the NCS and ensure that we use the right rig for the right purpose.”
Great Interest in the Market
“This procurement process has certainly attracted great interest among rig entrepreneurs, contractors and investors”, comments Jon Arnt Jacobsen. “Many bidders have taken part in this process and the competition has been keen. Considering that we are ready to start this less than two years after the idea was launched, I consider this a success story!”
Troll
Capable of operating in 100 to 500 m of water this specially designed category D drilling rig can drill wells down to 8,500 m. It will be a workhorse on mature fields, primarily drilling production wells and completing wells, enabling Statoil and its partners to produce more oil from the fields. Holding many world records Troll will now also be the first field to be serviced by the new specially designed rigs. Statoil has awarded the contract for the charter of the two first category D rigs on behalf of the Troll licence.
Hans Jakob Hegge, Statoil’s senior vice president for Eastern North Sea operations in Development and Production Norwaycomments:
“Statoil and its Troll partners have high ambitions for the further development of the field and we are pleased to have taken a decision to charter two specially designed rigs. We will now have a tool capable of performing the demanding tasks ahead. The rig capacity on the NCS is limited, and increased capacity is essential to ensure enhanced recovery. The new rigs are expected to operate 20% more efficiently than conventional rigs, and we look forward to having the new rigs up and running from 2014.”
Suppliers
A hull designer, several topside suppliers, yard and rig entrepreneurs have helped develop the category D rig concept. Songa has assigned the rig construction work to the DSME yard in South-Korea. Aker Solutions has been picked as the supplier of the drilling equipment. The project concept and design has taken one year and the implementation period is expected to take three years, including detail engineering, construction and transportation to the NCS. The mobilisation from the yard in South-Korea to the North Sea is included in the contract value and will take about three months. The rig hand-over is scheduled for the second half of 2014.