Rig capacity for recovering more oil from the mature Tampen area of the North Sea has been secured by Statoil through a three-year charter for the Borgland Dolphin drilling rig.
Placed with rig contractor Dolphin, owned by Norway’s Fred Olsen shipping group, this contract will commence on 1 January 2007 and is worth some NOK 2.3 billion.
The semi-submersible unit will be used for drilling and well operations on such developments as the Statfjord and Gullfaks satellites, the Tordis, Vigdis and Borg subsea fields and Visund.
Borgland Dolphin will have operated for six years in the Tampen area at the end of December, reports Øyvin Jensen, manager of drilling and subsea operations for this part of the North Sea.
“It’s important for us and our partners that we secure continued access to this rig for on-going drilling and well work,” he explains.
“These activities embrace both exploration and production drilling in the Tampen area over the next three years.”