Statoil will suspend its charter of Songa Offshore’s semi-submersible drilling rig Songa Delta for five weeks later this month. The rig is currently deployed at Slemmestad, in Norwegian waters of the North Sea.
“They didn’t have a well ready” Songa’s CEO, Bjørnar Iversen, told Splash, adding that the work will resume “when they come up with a new well”.
The rig will go on a 75% suspension rate of $277,000 per day from the end of June until drilling work begins again in mid-August.
Songa said it expects “limited” overall financial impact from the suspension, “due to anticipated lower operating expenses in the warm-stacking period”.
Statoil won consent in early April from Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to drill two exploration wells in the North Sea using the Songa Delta rig.
The consent approved the drilling of two wells, which was estimated to last for around 45 days, depending on whether a find was made.
