Offshore accommodation specialist Floatel has secured a contract extension for its Floatel Endurance accommodation rig in Norway.
The extension is with the Norwegian oil firm Equinor for work at the Martin Linge field, where Equinor is working to bring the field in production.
"Equinor and Floatel International have agreed to extend the firm period for Floatel Endurance at Martin Linge to end January 2021. Equinor has the option to extend the charter further," Floatel said Wednesday.
The Floatel Endurance rig, which can accommodate 440 people in single bed cabins, replaced the Floatel Superior unit at Martin Linge in early November 2019. The rig's contract was to run until the end of June 2020. This has now been extended.
The Martin Linge field, an offshore oil and gas field located 42km west of the Oseberg field in the Norwegian North Sea in 115m of water, is being prepared by Equinor to start oil and gas production in the third quarter of 2020.
However, this timeline is now uncertain as, as previously reported, Equinor had in mid-March halted works on the Martin Linge hook-up and commissioning after a coronavirus case was confirmed at the field.
This was the offshore oil industry's first reported coronavirus case. Equinor then, at the end of March, started slowly stepping up activities at the Martin Linge again.
The Martin Linge field development involves a jacket-based integrated wellhead, production, and accommodation platform, and a permanently anchored oil storage vessel.
Per Equinor, when the field comes on stream, the gas will be transported through a new pipeline connecting the field to the existing pipeline going to St. Fergus, Scotland. The oil will be processed on the storage vessel and transported from the field in shuttle tankers.