Equinor has awarded a three-year contract for well plugging on its operated fields on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) to Island Drilling for its Island Innovator semi-submersible rig, and hired Archer and Baker Hughes to provide plugging services.
Island Innovator is a mobile rig specially designed for well plugging. The Norwegian rig company will now be on assignment for Equinor for several years, start-up scheduled for early 2026.
The contract, worth an estimated near $330 million, also carries five one-year options. The scope of work under the contract includes mobilization, planned upgrading and certain integrated drilling services.
In addition to the Island Innovator contract Equinor has awarded framework agreements to the oil service companies Archer Oiltools and Baker Hughes Norge for full-range delivery of plugging services with a duration of three years, with two two-year options.
Total work related to integrated plugging services over the next seven years is estimated at a combined value of about $332.8 million.
Archer Oiltools has also been assigned responsibility for planning plugging operations for 26 wells to be plugged from Island Innovator, in addition to options to perform the work.
According to the plan Island Innovator will permanently plug 15 to 20 wells annually for a total of nine licences. These wells will no longer be used for oil or gas production. The rig will plug subsea wells at Heidrun, Snorre and Norne, among others.
“We will drill 600 improved oil recovery wells and about 250 exploration wells to maintain our production on the NCS towards 2035. At the same time, many wells will be permanently securely plugged.
“This rig provides us with a tool specially designed for plugging operations. The initial plan is a three-year work programme, but we do not rule out utilising the rig for operations also in the longer term,” said Erik G. Kirkemo, Equinor’s senior vice president for drilling & well.
Equinor is currently the operator of more than 1400 production and injection wells on the NCS.
Up to 2030, the plan is to permanently plug about 80 subsea wells using mobile rigs, and 90 platform wells. In addition, an average of around 45 wells are plugged annually for reuse. From 2035 to 2045, a larger wave of permanent plugging is expected.
