Valaris strikes deals with total backlog of $95 million

Offshore drilling contractor Valaris has secured new contract extensions for a drillship and four jack-up rigs with an associated contract backlog of $95 million.

Contract backlog excludes lump sum payments such as mobilization fees and capital reimbursements, Valaris said on Monday.

According to the rig owner’s statement, an option has been exercised by TotalEnergies offshore Brazil for drillship Valaris DS-15. The option has an estimated duration of 100 days and will be in direct continuation of the existing firm term.

The drillship has been working for TotalEnergies since June 2021 and the previously agreed term was supposed to expire in March 2023, the drilling contractor’s fleet status report from late July shows.

The company has also secured contract extensions with Saudi Aramco for three jack-up rigs.

The jack-up Valaris 76 has won a 292-day contract extension in direct continuation of the existing contract, which was supposed to end in December 2022.

Furthermore, the Valaris 54 has been awarded a 204-day contract extension, also in direct continuation of the existing contract, which was supposed to expire last month.

Finally, the Valaris 108 has been awarded a 142-day contract extension. This extension is in direct continuation of the existing contract set to expire in November.

The contractor also informed that a four-well option has been exercised by BP offshore Trinidad for heavy-duty modern jack-up Valaris 118. The four-well option has an estimated duration of 200 days and will be in direct continuation of the existing firm programme, which is scheduled to end in June 2023. The four-well option has a total contract value of approximately $24 million.

As a reminder, following a drilling campaign in Mexico, this jack-up rig has recently arrived in Trinidad to perform a four-well campaign for BP expected to start in October and last 270 days until June 2023.

This latest batch of contracts for Valaris rigs comes a month after the rig owner added $149 million to its contract backlog following new contracts and contract extension awards for one semi-submersible rig and three jack-up rigs.

These were awarded subsequent to issuing the company’s most recent fleet status report on 28 July 2022 when it was revealed that four jack-up rigs had secured more work.