The Transocean Wildcat rig, which is currently drilling for Statoil, will be taken to land for repairs following the discovery of cracks in a number of diagonal bracings.
The cracking was revealed during an internal inspection by rig owner Transocean Sedco Forex at the end of last week.
Due to leave the Gullfaks field in the North Sea on Tuesday 6 February, the Aker H-3 semi-submersible will arrive at the Hanøytangen yard near Bergen the next morning. Repairs are expected to take 14 days.
The rig had just finished drilling well 34/10-13H in the Rimfaks reservoir when the damage was discovered.
Plans to move the rig to drill an exploration well on the Gullfaks field have been postponed, says Hermod Johansen, manager for resource utilisation in Gullfaks satellites.
Transocean Wildcat was also brought to land for repairs last November, after cracks were found in the horizontal bracings, during an annual routine inspection by Det Norske Veritas.
According to Mr Johansen, the damage discovered now is in an area not examined during the last workover.