Equinor said Oct. 12 that it extended a contract with Maersk Drilling A/S's Maersk Intrepid rig for operational support on the Martin Linge field and has also signed another one containing four new options.

The Maersk Intrepid's contract was scheduled until April 2019 but Equinor chose to exercise two one-month options extending it until June 2019. Equinor also signed a new contract for the rig, which will start June 1, 2019, and end Oct. 31, 2019, and includes four options of two months each.

The fixed part of the new contract was assessed at $40 million.

The rig will be mainly used to add bed capacity in the Martin Linge field but may also be used for drilling-related activities with the possibility of being redeployed to other Equinor operated fields later on.

"This is capacity we need at Martin Linge for commissioning tasks and efficient work towards production startup," said Jan Einar Malmin, Equinor's project director for Martin Linge.

The Martin Linge field is located near the border of the U.K's section of the North Sea about 42 kilometers west of the Oseberg field and is operated by Equinor subsidiary Equinor Energy AS with a 70% interest. Petoro AS holds the remaining 30%.