Norway’s Sevan Drilling and China’s Cosco have agreed to delay a first deferral agreement period over a newbuilding drilling rig from 15 October to 1 November this year.

Oslo-listed Sevan Drilling announced that the agreement is for both parties to “continue negotiations of the first six-month option period.”

The rig, Sevan Developer, is being built at Cosco (Qidong) Offshore and had its delivery deferred for 12 months from 15 October 2014, with options exercisable at six-month interval to further extend the delivery date up to a total of 36 months until October 2017.

The original delivery date of the rig was the second quarter of 2014, but the Cosco yard had delayed the delivery due to the absence of equipment from subcontractors back then.

In May 2011, Sevan Drilling entered into a contract with Cosco for the construction of Sevan Developer, based on the same design as other Sevan Drilling rigs.