Atwood may postpone delivery for two drillships

April 2, 2015

Atwood Oceanics has made changes to the delivery schedule for two of its newbuild drillships.

Namely, the Atwood Admiral drillship, that is currently under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME) in South Korea, was previously scheduled for completion in September 2015.

However, the company informed that the rig delivery may be delayed up to September 2016 at Atwood’s option.

Furthermore, the Atwood Archer drillship, also currently under construction at DSME yard in South Korea, was scheduled for completion in June 2016. However, the company now says that the delivery may be delayed up to June 2017 at Atwood’s option.

Offshore Energy Today enquired with Atwood into the reasons behind this decision. Atwood Executive Vice President and CFO, Mark L. Mey, said that demand for UDW drillships is at a cyclical low and that in fact most tenders are being postponed or cancelled.

“By postponing the delivery of these drillships, we are buying time until the market recovers,” Mey explained.

Mey further added that, “by retaining these drillships in the DSME shipyard, we are able to minimize any and all out of pocket cash costs to a fraction of the alternative warm-stacking costs”.

Both drillships are DP-3 dynamically-positioned, dual derrick ultra-deepwater drillships rated to operate in water depths up to 12,000 feet and drill to a depth of up to 40,000 feet, and have accommodations for 200 personnel.

Atwood Osprey

In addition, the Atwood Osprey semi-submersible drilling rig is expected to incur a total of approximately one month of out of service time for mooring line repairs due to Force Majeure, at 90% Operating rate from mid-March to mid-April.

The rig is under contract with Chevron offshore Australia until May 2017. Estimated day rate for Atwood Osprey is $455,000.

The rig was recently torn from its moorings during Cyclone Olwyn causing production shut down at Woodside’s Pluto LNG plant in Western Australia.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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