Offshore drilling contractor Aquadrill, formerly known as Seadrill Partners, has extended the charter hire agreement with a subsidiary of Diamond Offshore Drilling for one of its drillships, which has won a new deal with BP for operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Back in September 2022, Aquadrill entered into a charter hire agreement with Diamond’s subsidiary (the manager) to provide the Vela drillship for operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, Diamond Offshore manages two drillships – Auriga and Vela – on behalf of Aquadrill Offshore.
In an update on Thursday, Aquadrill revealed that it had extended the charter hire agreement with Diamond Offshore’s subsidiary for the Vela MPD-outfitted seventh-generation drillship. This drillship also recently secured a 150-day drilling contract in the Gulf of Mexico with a total expected contract value of approximately $60 million .
Furthermore, the terms of the charter hire agreement are consistent with the current management services agreements in place between Aquadrill and Diamond. In addition, the offshore drilling contractor says that the resulting financial benefits it stands to gain are “as if the company had entered into the drilling contract directly.”
Moreover, the company underscored that an agreement to suspend the underlying drilling contract related to the charter hire for the rig running from January to August 2023 was entered into, concurrent with extending the charter hire for the new work scope. Therefore, the contract with Beacon will be suspended after the first well and the new 150-day work scope will begin in direct continuation.
The 2013-built Vela drillship has been working for Woodside in the Gulf of Mexico since October 2022 with the end date set for December 2022, as the drillship is expected to work for Beacon from January 2023 until March 2023.
Afterwards, the rig will move to its new job with BP, according to Diamond’s fleet status report from December 2022. After wrapping up the work with BP, the Vela drillship will return to Beacon in August 2023 to finish its assignment, which is slated to end in 1Q 2024.
Regarding Aquadrill’s most recent activities, it is worth noting that the offshore drilling contractor recently extended the charter hire agreement for the Auriga drillship with Diamond, after reaching an agreement on the one-year mutually agreed option in the current drilling contract.
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