Quadragenarian jack-up leaves Shelf Drilling’s rig fleet to work for new owner in Malaysia

Dubai-headquartered offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling has wrapped up a divestment process for a jack-up rig which will work on a decommissioning assignment in Malaysian waters for its new owner.

Following the end of the Baltic jack-up rig’s contract in West Africa, Shelf Drilling disclosed an agreement to sell the rig to an unnamed buyer, confirming the mobilization to Southeast Asia was anticipated shortly. The sale, which was expected to bring a total consideration of $60 million, has been finalized, as confirmed by the offshore drilling firm alongside the receipt of funds.

While the new rig owner intends to deploy the 1983-built jack-up on a multi-year, plug and abandonment (P&A) program in Malaysia, Shelf Drilling has agreed to provide rig management and operations support to the buyer for the upcoming P&A campaign in Southeast Asia. The rig, capable of accommodating 120 people, is of the Marathon LeTourneau Super 300 design and had its latest upgrade in 2015.

While the UAE drilling player did not reveal the name of the rig’s new owner, this is believed to be Malaysia’s T7 Global, which recently secured a contract, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tanjung Offshore Services, for the provision of a jack-up drilling rig for Petronas Carigali’s P&A program.

Shelf Drilling has secured several assignments for its rig fleet, including a new set of drilling assignments for two jack-up rigs in West Africa. The UAE-headquartered drilling player’s total contract backlog rose to $2.1 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2024.

The company is pursuing a consolidation move, which is structured as a proposed triangular merger between itself as the issuer of the merger consideration shares, its indirect subsidiary SHLF MergCo, and Shelf Drilling North Sea (SDNS) as the surviving entity in the proposed business combination.