Norwegian offshore drilling company Odfjell Drilling has, on behalf of Northern Ocean, agreed a contract extension for the Deepsea Bollsta drilling rig with Shell.
The contract extension for the offshore drilling rig, owned by Northern Ocean, and managed by Odfjell Drilling, has been secured with Shell Namibia, Shell's Namibian subsidiary.
Northern Ocean, the owner of the drilling rig, said the firm term of the contract is extended from December 2023 for six months into June 2024 and provides an additional option for six months.
The extension from December provides a revenue backlog of around $88.6 million with the option to extend for an additional six month potentially adding a further $81.0 million.
Northern Ocean's second rig, the Deepsea Mira, at the beginning of April 2023, left Bergen, Norway, and began mobilization to the first well location in Namibia for its multi-country contract with TotalEnergies.
"The rig has experienced some delays loading equipment and performing required maintenance during the transit, and we are now targeting commencement of the contract at the end of the second quarter," Northern Ocean said.
Namibia was placed on the global oil and gas exploration map last year with two giant oil discoveries made by TotalEnergies (Venus) and Shell (Graff). In March 2023, Shell also made a discovery at the Jonker-1X deep-water exploration well in PEL-39 Exploration License, offshore Namibia.
