Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway --Statoil has contracted Odfjell's new semisubmersible Deepsea Atlantic for exploration and production drilling on the Gullfaks field in the North Sea.

The sixth-generation rig is under construction at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering yard in South Korea. It should be delivered in the first half of 2009.

The flexible contract has a length of four or five years, with two additional two-year options. Statoil must determine the length of the rig's stay by July 2008.

4/16/2007