Shell books Deepsea Mira for a Trinidad and Tobago campaign from April 2027

Northern Ocean has signed a contract with a Shell subsidiary for the semisubmersible Deepsea Mira, its only remaining drilling rig. The company announced the award on 2 October through the Oslo stock exchange. Operations are due to start in April 2027 in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.

The firm term covers about 150 days and is worth about $70m, including mobilisation fees. Shell holds an option for a further one-year programme in the region, which would lift the total contract value to about $226m. Odfjell Drilling is the rig's operating partner.

The award returns the 2018-built unit to work after an idle spell. Its previous job was also for Shell, off Namibia. That contract was signed in December 2025 for one firm well of about 45 days and an optional second well, with a projected firm backlog of about $16m. At the time Northern Ocean put its total firm backlog at about $387m.

The rig started work in Namibia on 4 April 2026 and finished on 2 July. The well ran longer than planned and earned about $31m in contract revenue, nearly twice the original estimate, but Shell did not exercise its option for the second well.

Northern Ocean is backed by John Fredriksen. Deepsea Mira is the only rig it still owns, which makes the Shell award the company's sole announced drilling work for 2027. The firm term is more than three times the length of the Namibian well and more than twice its final revenue, before the option is counted.

This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 6 October 2026.