COSL Offshore Management has secured a contract from Equinor to drill four wells on Statfjord Øst field in the North Sea.
As agreed, COSL will use COSLPromoter rig to drill the four wells from 2023. This campaign is expected to run for 220 days.
The rig can be used for drilling five additional wells for Statfjord satellites afterwards.
The fixed part of the contract is valued at around $56m, which includes drilling and completion services, treatment of wastewater, fuel, handling of cuttings and upgrading of the rig by installing an automatic drilling control system.
Other services such as running of casing, remote-operated vehicle (ROV), mobilisation and demobilisation are expected to cost around $4m.
Equinor chief procurement officer Mette Ottøy said: “With this contract, Equinor shows continued demand for smaller rigs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf as long as they are competitive and fit for the required drilling operations.
“The rig will be anchored at Statfjord Øst, helping maintain a low carbon emission level. We are pleased that COSL assumes responsibility for the fuel consumption, and they are working on several technologies and measures to reduce their emissions. This work will be important to us going forward.”
Previously, the COSLPromoter rig was used in a drilling campaign at Troll field. Currently, the rig is in hot lay-up at the CCB base outside Bergen.
Statfjord Øst was discovered in 1977 and began production in 1994. The oil and gas field lies 5km north-east of Statfjord C, in production licences 037 and 089.
Last year, Equinor and its partners announced that they will invest $345m to improve the recovery rate at Statfjord Øst field.
Equinor Energy operates the field with a 31.6875% stake. Other partners are Petoro (30%), Vår Energi (20.55%), Spirit Energy Norway (11.5625%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (4.8%) and Wintershall Dea Norge (1.4%).
