2019-built rig staying longer with Equinor in Norwegian waters

October 31, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has prolonged a rig drilling assignment off the coast of Norway, which is being undertaken by a semi-submersible rig managed by Odfjell Drilling and owned by Northern Ocean.

Deepsea Bollsta; Source: Odfjell Drilling

While revealing an extension of the contract with Equinor for the 2019-built Deepsea Bollsta rig, Northern Ocean explained that the deal has now been extended by five months in continuation of the initial two-year firm term deal for drilling on the Johan Sverdrup field.

This extension is expected to enable the rig to complete an eight-well program for the field. However, Equinor still has five one-year options available after this extension. The rig began its two-year firm contract with the Norwegian energy giant on August 31, 2025.

Sixth-gen rig kicks off multi-year gig with Equinor

Exploration & Production

Constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2019, Deepsea Bollsta is a sixth-generation semi-submersible rig of Moss CS60E design. This semi-submersible can operate in both benign and harsh environments at water depths of up to 3,000 meters.