Report: Northern Offshore sells 36-year-old jack-up to Perenco

Offshore driller Northern Offshore has reportedly sold one of its jack-up drilling rigs to oil company Perenco.

According to information provided by VesselsValue, Perenco bought the 1982-built Energy Endeavour from Northern Offshore for an undisclosed fee “for conversion.”

Northern Offshore bought the rig in 2007 from Maersk Contractors (now Maersk Drilling). The rig has been stacked since 2015 after a deal for it to be used by Rosneft fell through due to the sanctions against Russia. The contract would have brought $150 million to Northern Offshore.

Although the value of the reported sale to Perenco was undisclosed, VesselsValue estimates the rig to be valued $2.62 million as of December 31, 2017. For comparison, the market value of the rig in July 2007 was $81.42 million, according to VV.

Bassoe Offshore sets the value of the cold-stacked rig at a range of $1 million to $2 million.

The 36-year-old rig is a Gusto independent three-leg cantilever jack-up built by RSV Gusto in the Netherlands. It can accommodate 96 people, operate in a maximum water depth of 300 feet, and has a maximum drilling depth of 25,000 feet. The rig is currently stacked in Rotterdam.

Offshore Energy Today has reached out to Perenco and Northern Offshore seeking confirmation and we will update the article if and when we receive a response.

If proven correct, this would not be the first time the two companies have cooperated in the offshore rig space as in 2011 Perenco UK hired Northern Offshore’s for jack-up Energy Enhancer for work in the UK Southern North Sea.

Worth noting, according to Wood Mackenzie’s Infield Systems, 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 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.”