Transocean, one of the world’s largest offshore drilling contractors, has amended its construction contracts with Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiary, Jurong Shipyard, to delay the delivery of its two newbuild, ultra-deepwater drillships by 24 months.
Transocean ordered two drillships , $540 million each, from Jurong in February 2014. The drillships will be built based on Jurong Shipyard’s proprietary Jurong Espadon III design. They were scheduled for delivery in 2Q 2017 and 1Q 2018.
The two drillships are now expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, respectively.
Idle & stacked
According to Transocean’s monthly fleet status report, the GSF Monarch and Transocean Spitsbergen are idle. The Spitsbergen’s well program concluded 45 days early due to efficient performance of the rig; the contract provides for a payment to the company in the event of an early termination.
The previously idle rig, GSF C.R. Luigs, is now stacked.
The company has classified the GSF Celtic Sea and the Transocean Amirante as held for sale. According to Transocean, the Amirante will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner; the Celtic Sea will either be sold for use in a non-drilling capacity or recycled.
To date, excluding the Celtic Sea, Transocean has indicated its intent to scrap a total of 20 floaters.
New contracts
The total value of new contracts for Transocean since its last report is approximately $109 million.
Namely, Transocean Andaman jack-up rig has been awarded a one year contract extension with Chevron offshore Thailand at a dayrate of $115,000. The rig’s previous dayrate was $150,000.
Deepwater Champion ultra deepwater floater has been awarded a three month contract extension with ExxonMobil in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at a dayrate of $395,000. The dayrate on previous contract was $670,000.
GSF Galaxy II jack-up rig has been awarded a one well contract extension with GDF Suez in the U.K. sector of the North Sea at a dayrate of $190,000. The dayrate on previous contract was $214,000.
Sedco Express ultra deepwater floater has been awarded a 45 day contract with Eni offshore Nigeria at a dayrate of $300,000.
Offshore Energy Today Staff