ConocoPhillips gives Norway job to Ocean Rig semi-sub

Offshore driller Ocean Rig has signed a master service agreement with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia for a term of three years plus two optional years.

As part of the agreement, both parties signed a drilling program order for one firm well of about 90 days plus two options, for drilling offshore Norway, Ocean Rig informed on Monday.

The drilling program order will be performed by the Leiv Eiriksson and is expected to start in the second half of 2019.

Pankaj Khanna, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented: “We are pleased to announce a strategic partnership with a major player in the Norwegian Continental Shelf and to secure additional work for the Leiv Eiriksson.

“It is an acknowledgment of our experience in the harsh environment sector and the customer satisfaction we deliver to our clients, as we have already done in the past with ConocoPhillips.”

The Leiv Eiriksson is a fifth generation deep water semi-submersible drilling rig of a BINGO 9000 design. It was completed in 2001. The hull was constructed at Dalian New Shipyard China, and outfitted at Friede Goldman Offshore USA.

Ocean Rig’s only other semi-sub rig, the Eirik Raude, is unemployed and cold stacked in Greece.