Equinor extends ‘Safe Boreas’ contract at Mariner

Equinor’s business unit in the UK, Equinor UK Limited, has exercised the second of six one-month options to extend the charter of the Safe Boreas accommodation rig owned by Prosafe.

Prosafe said on Tuesday that the total value of this option is $6 million.

The Safe Boreas started a 13-month firm operational period at Mariner in the UK sector of the North Sea in early August 2017.

Equinor exercised its first one-month option for the Safe Boreas unit last July extending the rig’s firm operational period to early October 2018. With the second option now also exercised, Safe Boreas will continue through to early November 2018.

Equinor is using the unit to support the hook-up and commissioning work at the Mariner field, dubbed one of the largest upstream investments in the UK in the last 10 years.

Discovered in 1981 on the East Shetland Platform, approximately 150 kilometers east of the Shetland Islands, the Mariner is a heavy oil field characterised by dense, viscous oil.

Development concept includes a production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform based on a steel jacket, Mariner A, with a floating storage unit (FSU), Mariner B. Drilling will be carried out from the Mariner A drilling rig, with a jack-up rig assisting for the first 4 years.

Production is expected to start in late 2018.