HAMILTON, Norway, April 4, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Reference is made to the press release dated 3 April 2006 regarding the closing of the U.S. Offer. After the expiry of the U.S. Offer period, SeaDrill Limited ("SeaDrill") has received acceptances for a total of 79,885 class A ADSs (class A-shares) and 161,239 class B ADSs (class B-shares), equaling in excess of 0.1% of the Smedvig ASA ("Smedvig") votes and 0.3% of the Smedvig capital. In addition, there has been a smaller adjustment of additional 2900 A-shares from the amount reported yesterday through the Mandatory Offer.
Reference is made to the U.S. Offer Documents, dated 6 March 2006, for further description of the terms of the Offer.
Including both the accepted shares and the already owned shares, SeaDrill controls 53,243,654 class A-shares and 25,693,630 class B-shares, constituting approximately 99.0% of the Smedvig votes and 96.6% of the Smedvig capital. Adjusted for Smedvig's own shares (1,998,000 class B-shares), SeaDrill controls 99.0% of the Smedvig capital.