Maersk Drilling has ordered an ultraharsh-environment jack up rig to be used initially under a 5-year contract with BP PLC for plug-and-abandonment work in Valhall oil and gas field in the Norwegian North Sea.
BP Norway, operator with a 35.95313% interest in a combine with Hess Norge (64.04688%), is redeveloping the field, which began production in 1982 (OGJ Online, Jan. 29, 2013). Design life of facilities installed for the redevelopment project is 40 years. Water depth at Valhall is about 70 m.
The new jack up, XL Enhanced 4, will be built at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering yard in South Korea. Three rigs of the same class, XL Enhanced 1-3, are under construction at the Keppel FELS yard in Singapore. They’ll be able to drill to 12,000 m in 150 m of water.
Maersk expects to take delivery of the XL Enhanced 4 in 2016. Total project cost is $650 million.
Maersk estimates the value of its BP contract for the rig at $812 million. BP can extend the contract to a total duration of 10 years.
