More drilling and maintenance work for KCA Deutag at North Sea platform

UK-based drilling, engineering, and technology services company KCA Deutag has got its hands on a contract extension for the provision of offshore drilling and maintenance services on a platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

Thanks to this two-year contract extension with Norway’s oil and gas player Vår Energi, KCA Deutag will continue to provide offshore drilling and maintenance services on the Ringhorne platform in the North Sea. The company highlights that the extension to March 2026 further solidifies the partnership, marking 24 years of collaboration since the platform’s commissioning in 2002.

Ole Maier, KCA Deutag’s President of Offshore, commented: “The award of this extension demonstrates our strong relationship with Vår Energi and our commitment to delivering the highest standards of safety and performance to our customers.

We are delighted to have expanded our scope of work to include integrated services such as tubular running and cuttings reinjection services, demonstrating our commitment to the delivery of advanced drilling technologies that optimise efficiency and safety.”

Located in the North Sea, about nine kilometers northeast of the Balder FPU, the Ringhorne field is equipped with a platform that produces and sends oil and gas to Balder FPU for final process, storage, and export. Vår Energi plans to extend the lifetime of the Balder field through the Balder X project to continue production from the Balder hub beyond 2045.

To this end, the company embarked on four projects, including the Balder FPU life extension through a vessel upgrade and drilling new wells on the Ringhorne III and Ringhorne IV projects. The firm’s plan for the Balder field also entails an upgrade of the FPSO Jotun and the drilling of 14 new production wells along with one water injection well. In addition, the firm is considering drilling new exploration wells in the area. 

Recently, Vår Energi changed the timeline for the first oil from the Balder X project, moving it to 4Q 2024 based on the inshore sail away in August 2024. Currently, the upgrade of the FPSO Jotun is ongoing with high construction activity at the Rosenberg yard.

KCA Deutag has been busy securing new deals. Recently, the firm’s Kenera business unit was hired by Equinor for a rig electrification project in Norway. Prior to this, Turan Drilling & Engineering, a joint venture between KCA Deutag and SOCAR AQS, got a long-term contract extension for the provision of offshore drilling operations and maintenance services across eight platforms in Azerbaijan.

This extension came a month after KCA Deutag got a contract extension with a total value of $60 million for the provision of drilling and maintenance services on two offshore platforms in Angola. The company also won new contracts and extensions with a total value of over $70 million in the North Sea.