Maersk Drilling secures North Sea contract with Nexen Petroleum

Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract by Nexen Petroleum UK following a competitive tender exercise for the drilling of three wells and options for nine additional wells at UK’s largest producing oil field, the Buzzard field in the Central North Sea. The drilling campaign is for phase 2 of the Buzzard development project and is planned to commence around July 2018. The estimated duration of the initial firm contract period is 225 days. The drilling campaign will be carried out by one of Maersk Drilling’s I-class jackups currently operating in Norway. The I-class jackups are of a CJ70 design.

“This is an important win in a challenged market, and we appreciate this opportunity to leverage our extensive experience in the North Sea and further strengthen our good relationship with Nexen Petroleum UK Limited. We have been awarded the contract by Nexen Petroleum UK Limited due to our high-efficiency, harsh-environment rig design that includes offline capabilities, as well as our proven track record of delivering high performance and driving continuous improvement. By planning and executing work in close alignment with customers, we are able to unlock the full performance potential of these large offline capable jackups,” said Lars Ostergaard, Chief Commercial Officer of Maersk Drilling.

As per contractual agreement with Nexen, it remains to be decided which of the I-class jackup rigs Maersk Drilling will be utilizing for the campaign at the Buzzard field. This will be decided in November 2017.