Statoil drops West Hercules rig

Statoil has decided to cancel the contract with Seadrill for the West Hercules semisubmersible drilling rig.

The rig has been on contract with Statoil since 31 January 2013, performing an exploration campaign offshore Newfoundland in Canada for the past 18 months.

It was then due to move to the Aasta Hansteen license in Q2 2016, to start a drilling campaign starting around 1 July 2016.

However, last year, it was decided to postpone the Aasta Hansteen field start-up one year until 2H 2018, which meant the field drilling program has been postponed.

Statoil says, one of the reasons is that it is not preferable to complete the wells too early before production start-up.

The contract for West Hercules was originally to end on 31 January 2017.