STAVANGER, Norway, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company Statoil said more rig capacity would help it get more resources extracted from the Norwegian continental shelf.
Drilling contractor Songa Offshore won contracts worth an estimated $1.3 billion to build two rigs for Statoil. The Norwegian company said it needed the new rig capacity to revitalize the Norwegian continental shelf.
Oystein Michelsen, executive vice president for production at Statoil, described his company's portfolio in the NCS as "world-class."
"We are convinced that new efforts are needed to secure a rig fleet that can handle the demanding tasks ahead," he said in a statement.
The company said it is making new oil discoveries near existing fields and securing more rig capacity means drilling and completion of production wells will be cheaper.
Statoil trumpeted its success at the NCS in January. The company said it expected to maintain a production capacity from the NCS of around 600,000 barrels of oil per day for the rest of the decade.
Statoil last year announced one of the largest oil finds on the Norwegian continental shelf at its Sverdrup field. The company estimated there were 900 million-1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent there, twice the previous estimate.
