Thumbs-up for Aker BP to dispatch Noble rig for North Sea ops

Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP has received consent from Norway’s offshore safety regulator to use one of the Noble Corporation-owned rigs for operations on a field located in the North Sea off Norway.

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) recently disclosed that it had given Aker BP consent to use the Noble Integrator jack-up rig for well intervention on Valhall Flanke Vest (Valhall Flank West) in production license 006 B, which was awarded on 9 October 2000 and is valid until 31 December 2028. Aker BP is the operator of the license with a 90 per cent interest while its partner, Pandion Energy, holds the remaining 10 per cent.

Located in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, the Valhall field, which was discovered in 1975, is situated at a water depth of 70 metres. The initial plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 1977 and production at the field started in 1982. While a PDO for a wellhead facility (WP) was approved in 1995 and for a water injection platform (IP) in 2000, a PDO for two wellhead platforms on the northern and southern flanks was approved in 2001.

This was followed by a PDO for Valhall redevelopment, which was approved in 2007, and included an accommodation and processing platform (PH) to replace ageing facilities on the field. In addition, a PDO for Valhall Flank West was approved in 2018 and entails a normally unmanned wellhead platform. 

Aker BP intends to extend Valhall’s lifespan with the development of the Valhall PWP-Fenris project in the southern part of the North Sea. This unitised development includes a new process and wellhead platform (PWP) bridge connected to the Valhall field centre, and an unmanned wellhead platform on Fenris that will produce through a 50-kilometre pipeline to Valhall PWP. 

The 2014-built Noble Integrator is a Gusto MSC CJ70 X150 MD jack-up rig, which was constructed at Keppel FELS shipyard in Singapore. It can accommodate 150 people. Capable of working in a water depth of 492 ft, the rig’s maximum drilling depth is 40,000 ft.

Previously, Aker BP contracted the rig under the frame agreement with Maersk Drilling in 2017 when the Aker BP Jack-up Alliance, including Halliburton, was established. In December 2021, a deal to renew the frame agreement was disclosed.

The Noble Integrator rig secured more work with Aker BP after the Norwegian player entered into drilling and wells alliance agreements in January 2023 with Noble Corporation, Odfjell Drilling and Halliburton to carry out drilling activities on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).

Noble seems to be reaping the benefits of its merger with Maersk Drilling, as its total backlog recently rose to $4.6 billion, thanks to the new deals totalling $1.1 billion, secured during the first quarter of 2023.