British multinational oil and gas company Shell Plc has contracted Northern Ocean’s Deepsea Bollsta to carry out drilling offshore Namibia under a 12-month contract.
Shell Plc, through its subsidiary Shell Namibia Upstream B.V, the National Petroleum Company of Namibia and Qatar Energy, is said to have discovered a working petroleum system for light oil in the Orange Basin, 270 km from the town of Oranjemund, where drilling operations commenced in early December 2021 and were safely completed in early February 2022.
Northern Ocean said the contract is expected to begin in the middle of the fourth quarter this year and has an estimated duration of one year, plus one six-month option.
“The contract adds approximately US$124 million of firm revenue backlog to the Company (excluding the option). The rig’s operations manager, Odfjell Drilling Ltd, has begun reactivation activities and mobilization preparation to meet the contract expectations safely and efficiently,” the said Northern Ocean.
The company added that to fund the reactivation costs, working capital and other general corporate purposes, it is planning a rights issue to raise US$40 million.
“The Company has retained Fearnley Securities AS, Danske Bank A/S, Norwegian branch, DNB Markets, a part of DNB Bank ASA, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) and SpareBank 1 Markets as Joint Lead Bookrunners to advise on and effect a private placement of new shares, with the intention to raise gross proceeds of approx. USD 40 million. The subscription price for the new shares will be determined by the Company’s Board of Directors based on an accelerated book building process.”
The Bollsta rig is managed by Odfjell Drilling following an agreement with Northern in December 2021.
Increased oil exploration in Namibia comes after more N$30 billion has been invested by oil companies since independence towards exploration, according to the Namibia Petroleum Operators Association.
