Rig Activities Heat Up in the North Sea

With the first offshore field discovered in the 1960s and first production achieved in 1971, the North Sea has been a major petroleum producing region for decades. While production at some fields has waned, new discoveries are made and boundaries pushed to keep the North Sea and the waters surrounding it a viable upstream option.
Currently, there are 70 offshore rigs working in the North Sea and surrounding waters of the Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea and Atlantic Margin. These include 31 jackups, 37 semisubmersibles and 2 drillships. The majority of these rigs are working in the waters offshore Norway and the United Kingdom, with 28 and 26 rigs, respectively. The Netherlands has nine rigs, Demark has six, and Ireland has one rig working in its waters.

There are a number of major projects — both exploratory and developmental — that are currently ongoing in the North Sea and the surrounding waters.

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