A 15-month charter worth some NOK 600 million has been awarded by Statoil to rig contractor Transocean for its Transocean Leader drilling unit.
The group also has an option to extend the hire period to cover an additional well with an estimated duration of 90 days, which would add NOK 110 million to the value of charter.
According to Tore Lea, head of rig management in Statoil, the whole charter period is secured against an obligatory work programme.
Statoil has chartered the Transocean Leader drilling rig.
However, the sequence of prospects to be drilled has not been finally clarified.
Due to start work for the group in May, the semi-submersible is currently located in the UK. It will be modified to prepare for operation on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).
Transocean Leader is a fourth-generation Aker H-4.2 unit, built in 1987 to work on the NCS. Statoil chartered it most recently in 1999 for use on the Statfjord satellites in the North Sea.