Statoil will pay COSL Offshore Management (COM) a one-time settlement of US$65 million under an agreement reached today that ends disputes related to the stand-by fees of two semisubmersible platforms.
The stand-by fees stemmed from the installation of third-party equipment, COM, the Norwegian subsidiary of China Oilfield Services Ltd., said. COM filed a lawsuit with Norway Stavanger District Court 15 October 2013 against Statoil Petroleum AS for an aggregate sum totaling US$148 million, plus overdue interest.
COM said it evaluated its working relationship with Statoil, the potential litigation costs, and uncertainty and risk clouding the final outcome before agreeing to the sum and withdrawing the lawsuit. It accepts the payment as revenue for the current period.
The semisubs under dispute were the COSLPromoter (pictured), delivered for use in the Troll field in August 2012, the COSLInnovator, also deployed to Troll in November 2012. New-build COSLPioneer rounded out the three semisubmersible the company leased to Statoil for use in the North Sea.
Both companies continued working together during this dispute. Statoil exercised a second two-year option for COSLPioneer on 2 August 2013, shortly before the dispute was filed.
As of the time of this writing, Statoil did not respond to requests for comment.
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