A letter of intent on chartering the Transocean Arctic rig to work the Norne field and two of its satellites in the Norwegian Sea has been awarded by Statoil to drilling contractor Transocean.
Placed on behalf of the partners in production licence 128, the assignment is due to last for about 19 months from 1 July and will be worth NOK 700 million.
Transocean Arctic’s first job will be a sidetrack on Norne itself, before moving on to drill seven-eight production and injection wells on the Svale and Stær satellites.
These two fields are being developed with subsea installations tied back to the Norne production ship.
The contract with Transocean is conditional on approval of the plan for development and operation of the Norne satellites by the licence partners and the Norwegian authorities.