Stavanger-based Badger Explorer is now working towards commercialization of the eponymous subsea drilling tool, having carried out successful tests of a prototype earlier this year, with the goal of achieving the first field pilot project by 2014.

ExxonMobil, which backed development of the prototype together with Statoil and Shell, this week signed a three-year agreement with Badger whereby it will provide funding of Nkr9 million ($1.5