Equinor has extended a raft of drilling and well service agreements on the Norwegian continental shelf, committing around NOK 17bn ($1.83bn) to keep activity levels high and production steady in the years ahead. The Norwegian major exercised one-year options under three integrated drilling and well services contracts, alongside two-year options across 18 corporate framework agreements covering specialist services tied to well operations. The integrated contracts alone are valued at NOK8.3bn, while the framework agreements are expected to add around NOK4.3bn annually over the next two years. Key service providers Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB were confirmed as core contractors for the integrated drilling and well services scope. The same trio, together with a wider group of suppliers, will also support specialist services ranging from downhole tools to reservoir monitoring and intervention work. The awards cover operations across a wide spread of assets, including fixed platforms and mobile rigs, and are expected to support around 2,500 jobs linked to activity on the shelf. Jannicke Nilsson, chief procurement officer at Equinor, stated that the agreements ranked among the company’s most important supplier contracts and were key to maintaining production from the mature Norwegian continental shelf. She added that continued drilling activity remained essential to ensuring stable energy deliveries to Europe, particularly against a backdrop of volatile energy markets. As the basin matures, Equinor is placing increasing weight on drilling and well interventions to sustain output. The company is targeting production of around 1.2m barrels of oil equivalent per day towards 2035, with new wells expected to account for roughly 70% of volumes by that point. Rune Nedregaard, senior vice president for wells at Equinor, explained that this shift would require both a higher number of wells and more frequent interventions, delivered at a faster pace and lower cost than current levels. He indicated that closer collaboration with contractors and a stronger focus on standardisation would be central to achieving those gains. Alongside the main contractors, a further group of suppliers secured places on the framework agreements for specialist services. These include companies such as Weatherford, NOV and Expro, among others, providing niche technologies and services required to support complex well operations. The extensions underline how critical drilling and well services remain to sustaining output on the Norwegian shelf, where much of the future production will depend less on new field developments and more on squeezing additional value from existing assets. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsNorway