Jack-Up Maersk Giant Avoids Stack with New North Sea Contract

Maersk Drilling says it has been awarded a brand new $16 million contract for the jack-up rig Maersk Giant with Danish power utility DONG Energy, saving the rig from being stacked amid the weak offshore market.

The agency contract covers 150 days of labor on the Nini and Siri subject within the Danish a part of the North Sea and is in direct continuation of the present contract with Talisman, maintaining Maersk Giant employed till March 2016.

“We are very pleased to continue our good corporation with DONG Energy, one of our key customers in the North Sea,” says Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO in Maersk Drilling and member of the Executive Board within the Maersk Group. “In order to navigate the low visibility in the current market, it is essential that we reduce our exposure by securing a solid contract backlog. Therefore, it is also rewarding to see that we secure employment for the Maersk Giant, which otherwise would have been stacked.”

The Maersk Giant is without doubt one of the extremely harsh atmosphere jack-ups in Maersk Drilling’s fleet. The rig is absolutely outfitted for prime stress/excessive temperature (HP/HT) drilling and is designed for year-round operation within the North Sea, in water depths as much as 107 m (350 ft) with an accessible leg size beneath hull of 132 m (435 ft).

Maersk Drilling’s present fleet consists of twenty-two drilling rigs together with drillships, deepwater semi-submersibles and jack-up rigs.