Offshore rig owner Northern Ocean has secured a five-month contract extension from Equinor for the 2019-built semisubmersible Deepsea Bollsta, keeping the rig working on the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea.
The Deepsea Bollsta began operations for Equinor in mid-2025 under a contract signed in late 2024. The initial deal carried a firm two-year term with five one-year extension options, adding around $335m in firm backlog, plus roughly $80m for client-specific upgrades, integrated services, and mobilisation from Namibia to Norway.
The latest extension will allow the rig to complete an eight-well drilling programme for the Johan Sverdrup Unit, one of the largest oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. The contract still includes the five one-year options available to Equinor once the extended term concludes.
The sixth-generation semisub is managed by Odfjell Drilling on behalf of Northern Ocean, a spin-off of John Fredriksen’s Northern Drilling, and forms part of a fleet that also includes the Deepsea Mira.
