Nexen hires COSL Drilling rig to plug North Sea wells

Offshore driller COSL Drilling Europe has received a letter of intent from Nexen Petroleum U.K. to carry out plugging and abandonment work at the Ettrick and Blackbird fields in the UK sector of the North Sea. 

The work, which will be conducted with the semi-submersible drilling rig COSLPioneer, includes 13 wells with a fixed duration of around 12 months, the driller said on Monday.

COSLPioneer is a 6th generation DP3 unit, currently located in Norway at the Coast Center Base (CCB) yard. It will mobilize and start work  in the UK in the first quarter of 2018.

The rig received its safety case in UK Safety Authorities from the Health & Safety Executive in March this year.

COSL Drilling Europe CEO, Jørgen Arneesen, said: “COSL is very pleased with Nexen’s intentions and we look forward to commencing work for one of the major oil companies in UK.”

The rig was designed to operate in water depths up to 750 meter and  in harsh environments. It is of a GM4000 design built at Yantai Raffles Shipyard, China.