Shelf Drilling Announces Rig Extensions and Fleet Updates

United Arab Emirates-based jackup rig pure-play Shelf Drilling has revealed a couple of extensions for its rigs and some news regarding its fleet in its latest status report.

The company said that its Trident 16 rig secured a three-month extension with the Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) in Egypt in February. The initial deal with the company was also for three months and was supposed to end in May 2025. Now, the deal for the rig is set to end in August. The Oslo-listed firm’s 1982-built rig has been working in Egypt for Petrobel on and off since 2015.

Another rig to snatch an extension is the High Island V. Its contract with Saudi Aramco has been extended by one month to July 2025. The jackup has been on hire with the Saudi giant since 2022.

The company also said in its fleet status report that the Shelf Drilling Barsk rig started drilling operations at Equinor’s Sleipner B in early May 2025. It served as an accommodation and support unit since November 2024. The firm term of the contract is expected to run until December 2026. The Norwegian firm has additional option wells after that.

In its previous update in March, Shelf Drilling stated that its 1981-built Trident VIII jackup was mobilised to the United Arab Emirates, where it was supposed to be sold for recycling. Now, the company confirmed that the sale of the rig was completed in April.

Several rigs, such as the Key Manhattan, C.E. Thornton, F.G. McClintock, Shelf Drilling Mentor, Shelf Drilling Scepter, Shelf Drilling Victory, and the Adriatic I, have had their contracts amended due to scheduled out-of-service time at one point or another.