Songa Offshore has taken delivery of Songa Endurance from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in Korea.

Songa Endurance will shortly depart South Korea en-route to Norway to begin an eight-year drilling contract with Statoil, with its first assignment on the Troll (32/2) Field on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Songa said the voyage to Norway will take place with tow-assist, and the rig will arrive with all third-party equipment installed and ready for final acceptance testing. Commencement of drilling operations is expected to take place around year-end.

Songa Endurance is a sixth-generation, high-specification, DP3, harsh environment, midwater rig designed for efficient year-round drilling, completion, testing and intervention operations in water depths up to 500 m.

PGS will cold-stack the Ramform Viking seismic vessel after she completes a multiclient project offshore East Newfoundland in late October this year.

The vessel was originally scheduled for a yard stay and classing in first-quarter 2016, which will be deferred. In-sea equipment from the Ramform Viking will be used on vessels in operation, and PGS said this reduces the company’s capex related to maintenance in 2016 by about $50 million.

In addition to the Ramform Viking, PGS earlier said that the Ramform Explorer and Ramform Challenger will be cold-stacked after the end of the North Europe acquisition season this year.

PGS estimates cold-stacking of the three Ramform vessels will reduce quarterly cash costs by $25 million to $30 million with full effect from first-quarter 2016.

Shell has booked the Regalia semisubmersible flotel for use at the Brent C platform in the U.K. sector of the North Sea.

The short duration $24 million contract beginning in second-quarter 2016 will provide dynamically positioned gangway connection for the duration of the project.

The deal comes after the Regalia recently completed a successful assignment for Shell at the Shearwater platform.

The Yno 302 offshore construction vessel has been launched from the dock hall at Ulstein Verft in Norway. Measuring close to 160 m in length, and with a beam of 30 m, she is the largest offshore vessel built by Ulstein Verft. The helideck is currently being mounted.

The vessel is jointly owned by Norway-based Island Offshore and U.S.-based Edison Chouest Offshore; the latter will be managing the vessel.

Offshore