Noble, Borr Drilling, and ADES jack-up rig trio hard at work in Dutch North Sea

December 18, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Three jack-up rigs, owned by Noble Corporation, ADES (formerly Shelf Drilling), and Borr Drilling, are carrying out oil and gas drilling activities in the Dutch sector of the North Sea (DNS) for Canada’s Tenaz Energy, the Netherlands-based ONE-Dyas, and Italy’s Eni.

Noble Resolute; Source: Noble Corporation

ADES’ Shelf Drilling Winner jack-up rig is on location in the Tenaz-operated Joint Development Area (JDA) drilling the K07-FB-103 well, where the Canadian player holds 45.6% working interest. The firm expects to drill three wells in the JDA and L block areas and continue with its workover campaign.

The firm’s capital plan allocates approximately 80% of CAPEX to drilling operations, approximately 10% to workover and optimization activities, and approximately 10% to long-lead purchases and facilities projects.

Within the company’s Dutch North Sea asset base, two more jack-up drilling rigs are currently operating. The first one is Borr’s Prospector 1, which is at GEMS, with operator ONE-Dyas ready to re-enter and finish a partially drilled infill well in the N05 pool.

Tenaz has a 33.3% working interest in the asset. ONE-Dyas will continue to execute its field development plan with a four-well drilling program targeting a range of infill and near-field exploration opportunities.

View on Offshore-energy.

The second rig is Noble Resolute, which has begun drilling Eni’s L10-M4 Malachite well in which the Canadian firm holds a 21.4% working interest. The Italian energy giant plans a one well drilling program, with potential expansion late in 2026 depending on rig scheduling and other factors.

Tenaz anticipates to begin its Canadian three-well horizontal well program in Q1 2026. This program, perceived to make up 4% of the firm’s budget, is expected to be composed of three horizontal wells, with two unfracked multi-laterals in the Ellerslie formation and a fracked single lateral in the Sparky formation.

According to the company, a capital expenditure budget of $250 to $275 million has been approved, with a production guidance for 2026 being 19,500 to 22,500 boe/d, reflecting year-over-year production growth at mid-point of guidance of approximately 115% from 2025.

The organic capital investment program follows two major acquisitions in 2025, seen as positioning Tenaz for multiple years of organic growth in natural gas production in the Netherlands, along with growth at a moderate pace in the firm’s Canadian oil project.

“We expect that a number of LNG projects, particularly from the United States, will continue to progress and bring additional volumes to the global market. Europe will continue to rely on securing LNG supply for consumption and storage needs, as well as displacing remaining supply from Russia, which is expected to stop before the end of 2027,” underscored Tenaz.

“For 2025, Russian LNG and pipeline supply into the European Union has averaged approximately 3.5 bcf/d, representing 12% of gas consumption. We expect LNG growth to cover the additional requirement, but reliance on short-term contracted volumes will require ongoing price competition to secure supply.”