Archer said it received the 30-day notice of early termination of the contract to use the modular rig, Archer Emerald, on 5 January.

The effective date of termination is 29 January, Archer said.

The original two-year contract, valued at approximately $96m, was announced in March 2014. Mobilization was scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2016.

Archer says the early termination fee it is owed under the contract is between $34m and $43m.

It would have been the first deployment of the Archer Emerald modular rig on the UK Continental Shelf, Archer has said.

Reasons for the termination were not given.

The platform-based modular drilling was to be part of the Talisman UK MAR redevelopment project aimed at prolonging the life of ageing assets at the Montrose reservoir.

Archer Emerald is a modular drilling rig (MDR) designed to be deployed on all offshore installations to perform drilling, completions, and plug and abandonment and decommissioning.

According to the company, the modular rig package is lighter and more compact than alternatives, reducing the platform size required, the size of the drilling crew and the construction costs.