Noble jack-up rig staying longer in North Sea

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has found more work for one of its jack-up rigs off the coast of the Netherlands, where the rig is currently carrying out drilling operations.

Noble has secured a contract extension with Petrogas E&P Netherlands, a part of Oman-based Petrogas E&P LLC, for the Noble Resolute harsh-environment jack-up rig. This will keep the rig busy in the North Sea for an additional 60 days and 40 optional days, beginning in March 2025.

Thanks to deals from 2022, the rig was tasked with plug and abandonment (P&A) work on a total of 31 wells in the Dutch North Sea in support of a rig sharing agreement between TotalEnergies EP Nederland and Petrogas E&P Netherlands before kicking off an amended scope of work with the latter.

Under the amendment, a five-well drilling contract with an additional one-well option was set to replace an option included in the previously entered contract. The amended drilling contract was slated to start in the first quarter of 2024, in direct continuation of the rig’s previous work scope, with an estimated duration of 188 days.

With a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 ft, the 2009-built Noble Resolute is a 350 ft, Gusto-engineered MSC CJ50 high-efficiency jack-up rig, which was hired to drill three wells for Petrogas at the A15 field and two wells at the B10 field, both of which are located offshore the Netherlands. All three wells are now online.

The additional scope of work for the drilling campaign in the Dutch North Sea will employ the Noble Resolute rig’s selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system. The offshore drilling contractor claims that this converts NOx into harmless water and nitrogen, resulting in a NOx emissions reduction of up to 98%.

According to Noble, this rig has been operating with a fuel load containing 20% sustainable diesel (HVO) since its drilling campaign commenced in November 2023, in a bid to reduce CO2 emissions from drilling operations in Dutch waters.

Noble secured multiple new deals recently, including a contract for one of its jack-up rigs with Wintershall Noordzee, a subsidiary of Germany’s Wintershall Dea, for plug and abandonment work in the Danish North Sea.