Noble to bring stacked rig back to work

Offshore driller Noble Corporation will be bringing one of its warm stacked rigs back to work, following a binding letter of intent with a Thai operator. 

In its fleet status report on Thursday Noble said it has been awarded the binding letter of intent for the Noble Clyde Boudreaux semi-submersible drilling rig by Thailand’s PTTEP.

Under this deal, the rig will operate for PTTEP offshore Myanmar starting in April 2018 until December 2018.

The 1987-built drilling rig of a F&G 9500 Enhanced Pacesetter design is currently warm stacked in a shipyard in Singapore. It has been at the shipyard since January 2016.

While the Noble Clyde Boudreaux is coming back to work, Noble has warm stacked one of its other rigs, the 2013-built drillship Noble Globetrotter II. The drillship was warm stacked in Bulgaria in January 2018 following completion of its contract with Total in the Black Sea.

In addition to dayrate for this contract with Total, the rig also continued to receive the $185,000 per day idle rate throughout the duration of this well and up to 730 days, as part of previously announced contract amendment for rig with Shell.

To remind, Shell in December 2016 exercised its right to idle the Noble Globetrotter II, which was operating under 10-year term contract, for a period of up to 730 days, starting January 2017. It was agreed for Shell to pay the rate of $185,000 per day during that idle period.

Offshore Energy Today Staff