Shelf Drilling hands out North Sea job to Norwegian firm

Offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling has handed out a contract for waste management services in the North Sea to Soiltech, a Norwegian cleantech service provider specializing in the handling, treatment, and recycling of contaminated water and solid industrial waste.

The new deal with Shelf Drilling will enable Soiltech to provide treatment of contaminated water on the Sleipner field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea with the Shelf Drilling Barsk jack-up rig, which will be working for Equinor. The expected start-up of this assignment is in the second quarter of 2024.

Jan Erik Tveteraas, Soiltech’s CEO, commented: “This will be our first project with Shelf Drilling, and we really look forward to delivering our innovative waste management services.”

Under the terms of the contract, the Norwegian cleantech service player will use its slop treatment technology (STT) and clean contaminated water without the use of chemicals to reduce the waste by up to 95%, with a resulting reduction in CO2 emissions.

The Shelf Drilling Barsk rig, previously known as the Noble Lloyd Noble jack-up rig, was bought by Shelf Drilling due to Noble’s efforts to remedy competition concerns related to its merger with Maersk Drilling, which was concluded in 2022. The 2016-built Shelf Drilling Barsk jack-up rig is of GustoMSC CJ70-X150-ST design and can accommodate 140 people.

The rig secured a contract with Equinor in April 2023 for operations at the Sleipner Vest field offshore Norway. While the initial contract is for two wells, the deal entails options for two additional wells, and the planned start-up of operations is between May and July 2024.

The Sleipner Vest field, situated in blocks 15/6 and 15/9, was discovered in 1974. The production of gas and condensate started in August 1996. This field is developed with two platforms: Sleipner B and Sleipner T. 

Recently, Shelf Drilling got its hands on a contract extension for a jack-up rig working on an assignment in the Gulf of Suez off the coast of Egypt with Gemsa Petroleum Company (Gempetco).