Equinor Awards $3.7 Billion in Drilling and Well Services Contracts in Norway

File photo: Equinor/Thomas Sola

Norwegian energy major Equinor has awarded new contracts for integrated drilling and well services contracts amounting to NOK 30 billion (about $3.7 billion).

Equinor, which was recently renamed from Statoil, awarded the contracts to Baker Hughes Norge, Halliburton AS and Schlumberger Norge AS and cover most of the Equinor-operated fields on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The contracts cover an initial four years and include options for five 2-year extensions.

“This is a great day for Equinor and the Norwegian continental shelf. The contracts are the biggest we have ever awarded within drilling and well service. The integrated delivery model we have chosen will strengthen the interaction between the service supplier, rig supplier and operator, enabling us to drill more wells. This, in turn, will enhance recovery and ensure long-term operations,” says Pål Eitrheim, Equinor’s chief procurement officer.

Equinor says the purpose of integrated drilling and well services is to clarify roles and responsibilities. “This results in less interfaces and more clearly defined responsibilities, facilitating more seamless planning and implementation of the operations between the various contributors,” the company says.

“The collaboration model has already been tested out for Johan Sverdrup Phase 1, Aasta Hansteen, Mariner and the Askeladd and Askepott Cat J rigs with very good safety and efficiency results,” says Geir Tungesvik, senior vice president, drilling & well.

The new contracts are expected to create jobs for some 2000 people on 17 fixed platforms and eight mobile rigs. They will replace the current service contracts, which expire on 31 August 2018.

“The contracts aim at new ways of collaborating, giving the service suppliers greater responsibility for services than before. Support from land will be essential to successful implementation of integrated operations. For mobile units the service contracts will be linked to the rig rather than the various licences,” Equinor said in press release.

“The service supplier, rig supplier and Equinor will collaborate as a team, and together decide how to best solve the tasks. We have common drivers to help us achieve our aims, and we are willing to reward good performance, because it helps us increase profitability. The principle of the collaboration model is to always operate according to best practice, learn across operations and leverage lessons learned for continuous improvement,” added Tungesvik.