Offshore driller Transocean has secured a $106 million contract for one of its ultra-deepwater drillships.
The two-year contract with BHP Billiton is for the Deepwater Invictus drillship. The contract is expected to start in the second quarter of 2018. BHP Billiton will have three one-year options to extend the drillship contract.
“We are extremely pleased to continue working with BHP,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Thigpen. “Since we welcomed the Invictus into our fleet in 2014, the combination of BHP, Transocean and the Invictus has delivered industry-leading performance; and, we look forward to extending our productive relationship through this multi-year contract.”
While Transocean did not provide an exact dayrate for the rig, it did say the firm part of the two-year contract was $106 million, putting dayrate at around $145,000.
For comparison, the Deepwater Invictus’ first contract with BHP back in 2014 commanded a dayrate of $595,000 . The drillship was built at the DSME shipyard in Korea, and it is capable of operating in water depths up to 12,000 feet and drilling wells up to 40,000 feet deep.
The drillship has spent most of its operational life with BHP in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, with a brief spell in Trinidad where it drilled for the same operator. The drillship is currently located in the Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana.
Offshore Energy Today Staff