Equinor awards new Statfjord drilling deal for compact semisub COSL Promoter

Equinor has contracted the semi-submersible rig COSL Promoter to drill at least four wells at its maturing Statfjord field offshore Norway.

The Norwegian energy giant announced on Thursday that it has awarded China’s COSL Offshore Management a contract to drill initially on the Statfjord Ost section, with the rig rolling on to the new contract in the second quarter of 2023.

The rig also has options for drilling five wells for Statfjord’s satellite pools of hydrocarbons, seeking upside.

The contract value is calculated at around $56 million for the fixed part, which has an estimated duration of 220 days.

The deal includes drilling and completion services, fuel, treatment of wastewater, handling of cuttings and upgrading of the rig by installing an automatic drilling control system.

Additional services include running of casing, and remote-operated vehicle mobilisation and demobilisation.

Equinor said the parties intend to extend their co-operation by exercising options after the planned work programme has been completed.

After drilling for Equinor on the Troll field from April 2013 to April 2021, the COSL Promoter was put into hot lay-up outside Bergen.

Equinor chief procurement officer Mette Ottoy said the contract shows that there is continued demand for smaller rigs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, as long as they are competitive and fit for the required drilling operations.

“The rig will be anchored at Statfjord Ost, helping maintain a low carbon emission level,” she said.

“We are pleased that COSL assumes responsibility for the fuel consumption, and they are working on several technologies and measures to reduce their emissions. This work will be important to us going forward.”

Erik G Kirkemo, senior vice president of drilling & well operations, said Equinor is pleased to continue working with a rig that operated for eight years on the Troll field.

“We are also looking forward to continuing our effort on late-life fields together with an experienced player, and we have high expectations to COSL helping us reach our [field life extension] ambitions,” he said.

According to Kirkemo, Equinor will focus on simple, standardised well solutions and successful improvements, in addition to proving that mature fields can offer profitable production for many more years and contribute to production to 2040 from the Statfjord area.

Partners in the Statfjord Ost licence are operator Equinor (31.6875%), Petoro (30%), Var Energi (20.55%), Spirit Energy Norway (11.5625%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (4.8%) and Wintershall Dea Norge AS (1.4%).