Maersk Innovator rig for Nexen’s Buzzard drilling campaign

Danish offshore driller Maersk Drilling has confirmed it will use its Maersk Innovator jack-up rig for Nexen’s drilling campaign in the UK North Sea. 

Maersk Drilling was awarded a contract by Nexen for the drilling of three wells and options for nine additional wells at UK’s largest producing oil field, the Buzzard field in the Central North Sea, in November 2017.

However, at the time of the contract award, the name of the rig to be used for the Buzzard campaign was left unknown as Maersk only said it would be carried out by one of its I-class jack-ups of a CJ70 design operating in Norway.

In its fleet status report on Thursday, Maersk Drilling revealed the 2003-built Maersk Innovator as the rig of choice for Nexen’s Buzzard Phase II Development Project. The value of the deal has not been revealed.

The drilling campaign is planned to start around July 2018 and the estimated duration of the initial firm contract period is 225 days. Until then, the rig is under contract with ConocoPhillips offshore Norway, ending in June 2018.

Offshore Energy Today Staff