Statoil Uses Ocean Vanguard for Drilling at Johan Sverdrup, Norway

Statoil Petroleum AS (Statoil) has received consent to carry out exploration drilling with the Ocean Vanguard semi submersible rig on well 16/2-17 S at the Johan Sverdrup field.

16/2-17 S is an appraisal well located in the North Sea, in production licence 265.

Water depth at the site is 111 metres.

The drilling activity is scheduled to start in March 2013. The activity has an estimated duration of 50 days, potentially 71 or 88 days if the options for a well test (DST) or sidetrack are carried out.

Ocean Vanguard is operated by Diamond Offshore with operating offices in Stavanger and technical and operational support from the company’s office in Aberdeen.

The rig is registered on the Marshall Islands and Det Norske Veritas is the classification society.

Ocean Vanguard was built in 1982 and received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) from the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) in July 2004.

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Press Release, February 20, 2013