Shelf Drilling lands five-year deal for another jack-up rig

Offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling has been awarded a long-term contract for one of its jack-up rigs, which will carry out operations in the Arabian Gulf.

While announcing this five-year contract for the Harvey H. Ward jack-up rig on Monday, Shelf Drilling explained that the contract value for the firm period, including mobilisation revenue, was approximately $192 million.

In addition, this deal includes a two-year option. The start-up of operations is planned for late March 2023. Prior to starting this contract, the Harvey H. Ward jack-up rig is scheduled to complete an upgrade and contract preparation project in the United Arab Emirates.

David Mullen, Chief Executive Officer of Shelf Drilling, remarked: “This award in the Middle East further demonstrates our customers’ confidence in Shelf Drilling to deliver safe and efficient operations and also represents an attractive opportunity for us to expand our footprint in this growing region, which will benefit the company and all stakeholders.”

The 1981-built Harvey H. Ward jack-up rig had its previous upgrade in 2011. This rig is of a Friede & Goldman L-780 Model II design. It is capable of operating in water depths of up to 300 ft and can accommodate 108 people.

This deal comes a little over a month after Shelf Drilling secured another five-year contract for operations in the Arabian Gulf. The work will be done by the company’s premium jack-up rig, which was acquired from India’s Aban Offshore earlier this year.

The offshore drilling contractor also recently bought five jack-up rigs from Noble and has already secured an extension for one of these rigs. The rigs included in the agreement were Noble Hans Deul, Noble Sam Hartley, Noble Sam Turner, Noble Houston Colbert, and Noble Lloyd Noble.