Equinor to extend Breidablikk drilling
Equinor Energy AS has exercised options for drilling an additional seven wells on Breidablikk field in the North Sea, extending its contract with Odfjell Drilling Ltd. for use of the Deepsea Aberdeen rig.
The options are planned to start in mid-first-quarter 2025 in direct continuation of the current firm period and extend the firm backlog on the Deepsea Aberdeen to end-fourth-quarter 2025. The options have a value of about $138 million, excluding integrated services, performance, and fuel incentives.
In addition to the exercised wells, the contract now includes further optional periods which, if exercised, could keep the Deepsea Aberdeen contracted to 2029. Such optional periods consist of six optional wells followed by three further optional periods of eight wells each, or about three times one-year. The rates for all such optional periods are to be mutually agreed prior to exercising.
Breidablikk is tied back to the Grane platform and oil is sent ashore by pipeline to the Sture terminal in Øygarden. The subsea field holds almost 200 million bbl of recoverable oil (OGJ Online, Oct. 20, 2023).
Equinor is operator of the field with 39% interest. Partners are Vår Energi ASA (34.4%), Petoro (22.2%), and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (4.4%).
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
