Maersk Drilling gets North Sea vote of confidence

July 13 (UPI) -- Danish offshore company Maersk Drilling said it was breathing a sigh of relief after getting contract extensions for two of its rigs in the North Sea.

The regional subsidiary of Irish energy company Petrogas extended the contract for the Maersk Resolute rig for 56 days. A subsidiary of Germany major Wintershall extended its contract for the Maersk Resolve rig by a minimum of 21 days.

Maersk Resolute is drilling in the Dutch waters of the North Sea and the Petrogas extension brings the contract to a total of 106 days. Maersk Resolve has drilled in the same area and in British waters and the extension brings the contract to a total of 380 days.

"It is very rewarding to be able to successfully reactivate our rigs from warm stack in order to support our customers' business by delivering safe and smart drilling operations, deploying rigs and crews with extensive experience in North Sea operations," Morten Kelstrup, the chief commercial ad innovation officer, said in a statement.

A Maersk entity in December announced it was moving ahead with a $3.3 billion effort to redevelop the offshore Tyra gas field, Denmark's largest. That followed an assessment from 2016 that there was a lack of a viable economic solution for Tyra and production would probably end in late 2018.

Maersk Drilling reported revenue in the second half of 2017 was $349 million, a decline from the $566 million during the same period the previous year. Profit decreased to $28 million, against $164 million in the second half of 2016. The company attributed the loss to the idling of some of its rigs.

The company has been dogged by safety concerns. Norwegian regulators issued a safety order to Maersk earlier this year after Aker BP reported a "serious accident" on board the Maersk Interceptor drilling rig left one person dead and another injured after they fell into the sea while conducting maintenance work.