Statoil has secured the Stena Carron rig in a 3-year deal valued at US $700m targeting “high-impact” drilling opportunities, according to the Norwegian operator.

The drillship will be used for exploration drilling in pre-salt Blocks 38 and 39 in the deepwater Kwanza basin offshore Angola. The agreement managed by Stena Drilling is for a 3-year fixed term with start-up in Q4 2013 or Q1 2014. Statoil also has two 1-year extensions.

The Norwegian company has also allocated the Discoverer Americas drillship to East Africa to perform exploration drilling in its operated blocks offshore Tanzania and Mozambique.

“Statoil has now secured rig capacity for its planned global exploration programme in 2013 and 2014. We have drilled four successful wells in Tanzania over the last year, and are now committed to drilling additional wells in Tanzania as well as in Mozambique and Angola,” said Tim Dodson, executive vice president for Exploration in Statoil. “Together with a three-well campaign in the Gulf of Mexico, three Statoil-operated wells in Canada, and a 1-year drilling campaign in the Barents Sea, this demonstrates an ambitious exploration programme.”

Off Angola, Statoil will test the pre-salt potential of the Kwanza blocks by drilling its commitment wells there. In East Africa Statoil, along with its respective partners, plans to drill up to four wells testing the further potential in Block 2 in Tanzania, and to explore Blocks 2 and 5 off Mozambique.

In the GoM the company will drill three operated wells this year using the semisub rig Maersk Developer. It also has exploration activities in two to three partner-operated wells in this region coming up, in addition to a three-well campaign offshore Newfoundland in Canada.

Statoil’s chief procurement officer, Jon Arnt Jacobsen, added: “Statoil has an ambition to produce 2.5 MMboe/d in 2020, which requires that we ensure sufficient and appropriate rig capacity. We have secured rigs for our needs in 2013 and 2014, and we are also targeting the allocation of rigs and developing new rig concepts to ensure more capacity in the market.”