Aker BP Enters Into Drilling Agreement with Noble, Halliburton and Odfjell on the Norwegian Continental Shelf
Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP has entered into agreements with offshore drilling contractors Noble Corporation, Odfjell Drilling and Halliburton for drilling operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). This was reported in Aker BP.
Back in 2017, the Aker BP Jack-up alliance was created, which included Maersk Drilling and Halliburton.
Over the past 5 years, the alliance has drilled over 100 wells on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The Norwegian oil and gas company expects to bring even more wells into production in the next 5 years thanks to a new agreement.
Theses from Aker BP CEO K. D. Herswick:
- at Aker BP we believe we create more value for all parties through deeper and longer relationships with key strategic partners;
- in the field of well drilling, we are now looking back on 5 years of mutual cooperation in the field of floating jack-up drilling rigs (jack-up drilling rigs) and semi-submersible drilling rigs (SSDRs).
According to Aker BP, the floating jack-up rig alliance includes Noble, Halliburton and Aker BP, while the floating semi-submersible drilling rig alliance includes Odfjell Drilling, Halliburton and Aker BP. New five-year agreements for both alliances were signed on January 11, 2022.
These contracts were made possible after Aker BP submitted several field development and operation (PDO) plans in December 2022 to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy with a total investment of more than NOK 200 billion (approx. USD 20.4 billion). ).
The new framework agreement contains the basic obligations to the Jack-Up Alliance for the Noble Integrator and Noble Invincible drilling rigs, and through the Semi Alliance, the contract with Deepsea Nordkapp has been concluded until the end of 2024 with the possibility of further extension.
In addition, the Deepsea Stavanger rig will join Aker BP’s rig fleet in 2025.
As noted by Aker BP, these drilling rigs are planned to be used in future PDO projects, so they are subject to government and license approval.
As a result of this alliance, the development and use of new technologies is expected to automate drilling operations, supporting the alliance’s joint goals of improving safety, improving efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions from drilled wells.
As a reminder, on January 11, 2023, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy summed up the results of the licensing round of Awards in predefined areas 2022 (APA-2022).
APA-2022 started on June 14, 2022, applications for participation were accepted until September 12, 2022.
As a result of APA-2022, 47 new production licenses were awarded to companies on the Norwegian continental shelf:
- out of 47 licenses:
– 29 distributed in the North Sea,
– 16 in the Norwegian Sea,
– 2 in the Barents Sea.
– A total of 25 oil companies received licenses, 12 of them as operators.
The leader in terms of the number of licenses received was Equinor, which received 26 licenses – 18 in the status of an operator and 8 in the status of a partner.
Aker BP was in 2nd place in terms of the number of licenses received within the APA-2022 (17 licenses, including 9 operator licenses).
In addition, Norway has conducted 25 licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration and production in previously unexplored areas.
In November 2022, the Norwegian Ministry of Oil decided to postpone the implementation of the 26th round to unexplored areas for 3 years, which was part of an internal political deal between the government and leftist forces to adopt the state budget. Many of the areas proposed for exploration were in the Arctic, where the EU seeks to limit exploration and production of hydrocarbons. Norway, currently the largest supplier of natural gas to the EU and one of the largest exporters of oil) takes into account the climate agenda, based on its own domestic political circumstances and external conditions.
