Three Borr rigs hit the brakes on drilling ops in North America as new suspension comes

UK-headquartered offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has confirmed a temporary suspension of operations notice for a jack-up rig trio working off the coast of Mexico, North America.

According to Borr Drilling, a notice of temporary suspension of operations was received for its Galar,  Gersemi, and Grid rigs operating in Mexico, thanks to the three-year deals its joint venture company, Perfomex, secured in October 2022 for five premium jack-up rigs with OPEX Perforadora and Perforadora Profesional Akal, providers of integrated well services to Pemex in Mexico.

The multi-year assignments were expected to keep all rigs busy until the end of December 2025. These five rigs have been under a contract with Pemex since May 2019. The trig owner claims the temporary suspension will remain up to March 31, 2025.

“Based on discussions with our customer, it is expected that some or all of these three rigs may be resuming operation prior to this date,” highlighted Borr Drilling.

With a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 feet (9.14 kilometers), the 2017-built Galar, the 2018-built Garsemi, and Grid are all of PPL Pacific Class 400 design and can operate in water depths of 400 feet (0.12 kilometers). The jack-ups, which were constructed in Singapore, can accommodate 150 people.

Recently, Borr Drilling landed a long-term assignment for one of its jack-up rigs off the coast of West Africa. The rig owner, which disclosed a backlog of $1.62 billion for Q3 2024, claims the global demand for offshore drilling services, including jack-up rigs, remains strong despite uncertainty.

The company expanded its fleet recently after Seatrium delivered the final newbuild jack-up rig almost a year before it was due. The suspension of activities in Mexico comes after Borr Drilling and other offshore drilling players received notices of temporary suspension of operations from Aramco for one or more of their jack-up rigs last year.

As a result, more rigs were pulled from their current assignments on top of the ones that received such suspensions in April 2024, narrowing the rig pool even further in the Middle East.