Borr Drilling nets new deals for jack-up rigs

Offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has won a new contract and signed four letters of intent and one letter of award for its fleet of jack-up drilling rigs. The rig owner has also regained compliance with the NYSE continued listing standard.

According to its fleet status report on Friday, following a letter of award, Borr Drilling has now signed a contract for the Idun jack-up rig with Vestigo in Malaysia.

The contract is from March 2021 to January 2022. The rig has been available since August 2020.

Borr Drilling has also signed four letters of intent and one letter of award for its rigs.

Namely, the Prospector 1 jack-up rig was awarded a letter of intent with an undisclosed client in the North Sea. The gig starts in April and ends in November 2021.

The rig has been under contract with One-Dyas since October 2020 with expiration set for March 2021.

Furthermore, Borr drilling has signed a letter of award for the Skald jack-up rig with PTTEP in Thailand. The contract is set to start in June 2021 to June 2024. The rig is now mobilizing in Singapore.

Borr has also signed three letters of intent for Pemex for the Grid, Gersemi, and Galar jack-up rigs. All three are for operations in Mexico from March to December 2021.

As previously reported, Borr experienced financial difficulties last year amid a difficult market environment combined with payment delays for its rigs working for the Mexican oil giant Pemex.

This was related to three Borr’s rigs operating for Pemex, Grid, Galar, and Gersemi.

Borr has now also regained compliance with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) continued listing standard after getting the second warning in a span of three months last year.

Namely, Borr Drilling on 7 September 2020 received the written notice from the New York Stock Exchange that the company was not in compliance with the NYSE continued listing standard with respect to the minimum average share price required by the NYSE because the average closing price of its common shares had fallen below $1.00 per share over a period of 30 consecutive trading days.

The company on Thursday received a letter from the NYSE, confirming that its average stock price for the 30 trading day period ended 25 February 2021 was above the NYSE’s minimum requirement of $1.00.

Accordingly, the company has regained compliance with the continued listing standard.

When it comes to its financial performance in the last quarter of 2020, the rig owner booked total operating revenues of $60.2 million in 4Q 2020 compared to $59.2 million in 3Q 2020.

Borr booked a net loss of $46.7 million in 4Q 2020 compared to the loss of $61.9 million in 3Q 2020.

The company’s full-year 2020 loss amounted to $305.2 million.

Borr CEO, Patrick Schorn, commented: “The fourth quarter financials were impacted by the lower activity at the start of the quarter, and higher expenses related to the COVID pandemic (approximately $6 million for the quarter).

“However, the activity since the third quarter is increasing, with three previously idle rigs having started new contracts in the fourth quarter, and three more expected to commence operations in the first half of 2021”.