Northern Offshore sells two jack-ups to Dixtone Holdings

Offshore driller Northern Offshore has sold its two veteran jack-up drilling rigs to Dixtone Holdings, an affiliate of the Perenco Group.

According to Northern Offshore, the ownership over the jack-up drilling rigs Energy Endeavour and Energy Enhancer – both built in 1982 – was transferred to the new owner on January 2, 2018.

The jack-ups were previously cold stacked in Rotterdam following completion of drilling contracts in the Southern North Sea region.

In addition, Northern Offshore has entered into management services agreements with the new owner to provide crews and operational support to reactivate and convert both jack-ups to platform support units. Northern Offshore did not reveal the financial details of the sale.

For the Energy Enhancer, the term of the service agreement is three months. In the case of the Energy Endeavour, following reactivation and conversion, the service contract also includes the subsequent operation of the newly converted platform support unit in the Southern North Sea.

When fully operational, it is expected that the units’ total manning will consist of up to 100 offshore and onshore personnel. Operational and technical management, as well as purchasing and logistical support, will be provided from Northern Offshore’s regional office in Aberdeen. The term of the service agreement is three years.

Chairman and interim CEO, Yuanhui Sun, said, “We are pleased to have sold these two legacy units and to establish a long-term partnership with the new owner to operate the Energy Endeavour in the Southern North Sea. This transaction re-establishes our operations in the strategically important North Sea region and represents an important milestone in Northern Offshore’s strategy to dispose of its older floating and jack-up assets and focus on the construction and operation of its new fleet of high specification jack-ups.”

To remind, Offshore Energy Today last week reported on the sale of the Energy Endeavour, based on a report by VesselsValue.

Newbuilds

Northern Offshore, bought by Shandong Offshore in 2015, currently has no drilling rigs under contract. The company’s website shows it as having two stacked rigs, and 6 newbuild rigs on order in China.

As previously reported, Northern Offshore in April 2017 agreed with the Chinese rig builder Cosco to further extend the rig technical acceptance date of the two rigs Cosco was building for the driller. The technical acceptance delay for the first rig, Energy Engager, was until the end of September 2017 and the second rig, Energy Encounter, to the end of March 2018.

The two companies then also agreed to delay contract delivery of the rigs “until a future date determined by mutual agreement,” citing “the current unfavorable international oil and gas market conditions.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff