Ocean Rig announced that it has signed a contract to construct a 7th generation ultra deepwater drillship at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI). This 7th Generation drillship is a sister ship to the three ( Ocean Rig Skyros, Ocean Rig Athena, Ocean Rig Apollo ) drillships currently under construction at Samsung, and is scheduled to be delivered to the Ocean Rig in December 2015.
The project value price is estimated to be approximately US$600 million. Ocean Rig has at no additional consideration a fixed priced option, declarable by November 2013, for an additional drillship for delivery in the first quarter of 2016.
Ocean Rig also announced that on August 20, 2013, it successfully took delivery of its newbuilding drillship the Ocean Rig Mylos. The Ocean Rig Mylos is the first in the series of three 7th Generation Ultra Deepwater Drillships, Ocean Rig expect s to take delivery in 2013. The drillship is currently mobilizing to offshore Brazil and is expected to commence drilling operations under the 3-year drilling contract with Repsol Sinopec Brasil S.A. by November 2013.
George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Rig commented: “ We have taken advantage of our strong balance sheet and our long-term relationship with Samsung to order at a very attractive price an additional newbuild drillship, sistership to our existing 7th generation ultra deepwater drillships. We expect that our new drillship will be financed through a combination of available cash and debt to be secured prior to the delivery of the drillship in December 2015. With all of our 2013 newbuild drillships as we ll as our first 2015 newbuild drillship, the Ocean Rig Apollo, already contracted to investment grade counter-parties, we are setting the stage for moderate growth going forward. We believe that the ultra-deepwater (UDW) drilling market for high quality assets will remain strong in the foreseeable future an d are excited about the future employment prospects of our high quality homogeneous fleet. ”
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Ocean Rig, September 4, 2013