By: Wonder Guchu

Shell Upstream Namibia BV, a Shell Plc subsidiary, has awarded a contract to Northern Ocean Ltd. for the Deepsea Bollsta rig for work in a benign environment market.

Northern Ocean Ltd (NOL) is an international drilling contractor to own high-specification offshore drilling units designed for harsh environments.

Shell Namibia Upstream BV (Shell) has a 45% participating interest in Petroleum Exploration License 39 (PEL 39), located offshore Namibia, with a 45% interest held by QatarEnergy and a 10% interest held by the NamCor.

Deepsea Bollsta is one of the world’s most advanced drilling rigs based on the Moss Maritime CS60 design, with a capacity for drilling in water depths of up to 10,000 feet in all harsh environment areas globally.

The contract is expected to commence in the middle of Q4 2022 and has an estimated firm duration of twelve months plus one six-month option. Odfjell Drilling that will do has already started reactivating activities and mobilising preparation to work with NOL and Shell to meet contract expectations safely and efficiently.

The contract is expected to commence in the middle of the 4th Quarter of 2022 and has an estimated firm duration of twelve months plus one six-month option.

Odfjell Drilling signed a contract with Northern Ocean in December 2021 to manage two rigs – the Western Bollsta and the Western Mira.

The contract adds approximately US$124 million of firm revenue backlog to the company (excluding the option).

The rig’s operations manager, Odfjell Drilling Ltd, has begun reactivation activities and mobilisation preparation to meet the contract expectations safely and efficiently.

To fund the reactivation costs, working capital and other general corporate purposes, the company has retained Fearnley Securities AS, Danske Bank A/S, Norwegian branch, DNB Markets, a part of DNB Bank ASA, Skandinaviska Enskilda BankenAB (publ) and SpareBank 1 Markets AS as Joint Lead Bookrunners to advise on and effect a private placement of new shares, to raise gross proceeds of approx. US$40 million.