Odfjell Drilling works to return Deepsea Atlantic to service after Rosebank incident

Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Atlantic semisubmersible went off hire on 18 April 2026 after an equipment handling incident at the Rosebank field west of Shetland. The blowout preventer dropped to the seabed at a depth of approximately 1,100 m while being run into the water, with no injuries to personnel and no impact on the rig’s integrity.

The company’s first-quarter 2026 results estimated a total of three to four months before the rig would be ready to resume operations, with insurance expected to cover recovery, replacement or repair of the damaged equipment. Investigations into the cause remained ongoing as of the report, with Odfjell Drilling working alongside equipment manufacturers to implement resulting measures and learnings.

The Deepsea Atlantic is a 2009-built sixth generation semisubmersible under contract to Equinor through the end of Q2 2027. The rig has been deployed on the Rosebank development, which includes four production wells, three water injection wells and two plug and abandonment wells in its first phase.