The COVID-19 pandemic and the lower oil price environment are impacting offshore drilling activity. Some tenders and projects are being delayed or cancelled which adversely affects commercial prospects.

In light of the current commercial outlook, Maersk Drilling intends to stack a number of the company’s North Sea rigs. As a consequence, Maersk Drilling proposes to reduce the offshore crew pool and has now taken steps to initiate consultations with trade unions and employee representatives about redundancies in the company’s offshore crew pool in Denmark, Norway and the UK.

“Though it’s standard practice in our industry to adjust our workforce to activity levels, it never feels right to say goodbye to good colleagues, especially when so many have walked the extra mile to keep operations running in these very difficult circumstances. However, it’s our responsibility to safeguard our business and we are now taking steps to maintain competitiveness in the challenging market environment,” says CEO Jørn Madsen.

Maersk Drilling expects that the consultations will lead to a total of 250-300 redundancies in the North Sea crew pool. The individual consultation processes will follow varying timelines in compliance with local regulations in Denmark, Norway and the UK.

About Maersk Drilling A/S

Maersk Drilling designs, develops and operates a global fleet of advanced drilling rigs using cutting-edge technology and know-how. Our modern fleet counts 24 drilling rigs including drillships, deepwater semi-submersibles and high-end jack-up rigs. We create value with our customers through a unique service delivery concept where we customise safe, efficient and consistent drilling services. We build our service around our highly skilled and committed workforce, our state of the art offshore drilling rigs and our 40 years of experience operating in the most challenging.