Northern Ocean nets $335m rig deal with Equinor

Northern Ocean, a semisub rig spin-off of Northern Drilling, has won a contract for its Deepsea Bollsta rig from energy giant Equinor for drilling off Norway.

Work under the contract is expected to begin in the second half of 2025 and has an estimated firm duration of two years, plus five one-year optional periods, where the first year is priced and the following years are unpriced.

The contract adds approximately $335m of firm backlog to the company with the addition of around $80m for client-specific upgrades, integrated services and mobilisation from Namibia to Norway. This will increase the company’s firm backlog to approximately $465m.

Northern Ocean will cooperate with its operational manager Odfjell Drilling to move the rig from Namibia for operations in Norway in direct continuation of completed work in the African country.

In addition, the company has signed a letter of intent with an undisclosed operator for one well work in Norway, to be completed in advance of the Equinor contract.

“This marks a turning point for the company to secure a longer-term contract in Norway with a client like Equinor. This provides a solid foundation for Northern Ocean to further develop the company and continue to build backlog, enabling the next steps of the company strategy,” said Arne Jacobsen, CEO of Northern Ocean.

“We have an ambition to maintain our production from the Norwegian continental shelf at a high level towards 2035, supplying the energy that Europe demands. Our ability to continuously drill new wells is at the heart of this. There is still a large remaining resource potential in our producing fields,” stated Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s EVP for exploration and production in Norway.