Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has been awarded a one-well contract for one of its ultra-harsh environment jackup rigs offshore Norway.

The award comes from the Norwegian arm of Polish energy group ORLEN, which has hired the 2014-built Noble Intrepid to drill an exploration well. The contract is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2027 and run for an estimated 40 to 60 days. ORLEN's Norwegian arm holds a portfolio of licences on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, a position that was scaled up when fellow Polish state-controlled energy company PGNiG, including its Norwegian upstream assets, was merged into the ORLEN Group in 2022. The licence and well targeted by the new contract have not been disclosed.

Ultra-harsh environment jackups such as the Noble Intrepid are purpose-built for the demanding conditions of the northern North Sea and the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where weather, wave loads and seabed conditions call for heavier designs than standard jackups, making the UK and Norway core markets for this class of rig. Noble, one of the world's largest offshore drilling contractors, operates a fleet spanning harsh-environment jackups, semi-submersibles and drillships, a scale reinforced by its 2022 combination with Denmark's Maersk Drilling.

The rig is currently working for BP in the United Kingdom. Its contract with the supermajor had been scheduled to end in September this year, but the unit will now remain with BP until September 2027 after a year of backlog was transferred from the Noble Innovator. With the ORLEN award slated to begin in the third quarter of 2027, the new work lines up with the conclusion of the extended BP commitment, keeping the Noble Intrepid's schedule committed across the UK and Norwegian sectors into the second half of 2027, with the well's location and objectives to be confirmed closer to the programme.