Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract by Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited following a competitive tender exercise for the drilling of three wells and options for nine additional wells at UK’s largest producing oil field, the Buzzard field in the Central North Sea.

The drilling campaign is for the Buzzard Phase II Development Project and is planned to commence around July 2018. The estimated duration of the initial firm contract period is 225 days. The drilling campaign will be carried out by one of Maersk Drilling’s I-class jack-ups currently operating in Norway. The I-class jack-ups are of a CJ70 design and are the world’s largest and most advanced jack-up rigs.

“This is an important win in a challenged market, and we appreciate this opportunity to leverage our extensive experience in the North Sea and further strengthen our good relationship with Nexen Petroleum U.K Limited. We have been awarded the contract by Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited due to our high efficiency harsh environment rig design that includes offline capabilities as well as our proven track record of delivering high performance and driving continuous improvement. By planning and executing work in close alignment with customers we are able to unlock the full performance potential of these large offline capable jack-ups,” says Lars Ostergaard, Chief Commercial Officer of Maersk Drilling.

As per contractual agreement with Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited it remains to be decided which of the I-class jack-up rigs Maersk Drilling will be utilizing for the campaign at the Buzzard field. This will be decided in November 2017.

About Maersk Drilling

Maersk Drilling’s modern fleet counts 24 drilling rigs including drillships, deepwater semi-submersibles and high-end jack-up rigs. Maersk Drilling employs an international staff of 3,000 people and generated an underlying profit of USD 743m in 2016.

About Nexen

NEXEN Energy ULC, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, has a 25% working interest in Hangingstone Project, while Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited (JACOS) holds the remaining 75% working interest and acts as the operator.