OREANDA-NEWS. Statoil has, on behalf of the Aasta Hansteen licence, decided to cancel the contract with Seadrill for the West Hercules drilling rig.

On contract with Statoil since 31 January 2013, the rig has carried out an exploration campaign offshore Newfoundland in Canada for the past 18 months.

According to the original plan the Aasta Hansteen licence was to take over the rig in the second quarter of 2016 for a drilling campaign to be started around 1 July 2016.

In the autumn of 2015 it was decided to postpone the Aasta Hansteen field start-up one year until the last half of 2018, and consequently the field drilling programme will also be postponed. One of the reasons is that it is not preferable to complete the wells too early before production start-up.

The contract for West Hercules was originally to expire on 31 January 2017.