Athens: BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) has extended its contract on Maersk Drilling’s Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible rig by a further five years in a $523m deal.
The 2003-built rig will continue its deployment at the Shah Deniz field in offshore Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea. The contract extension period will commence in May 2016 and run until 2021.
The rig has been built for year-round operations at water depths from 40 to 1,000 metres.
“We are very pleased with the extension for the Heydar Aliyev rig and look forward to continue our long-standing cooperation with BP,” said Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO of Maersk Drilling and member of the Maersk group’s executive board.
“With this contract we continue to build our contract backlog providing further revenue visibility. It is very encouraging that we continue to build backlog in this very challenging market.”
