Shell chooses Noble rig for drilling job in Americas

U.S. offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has landed a new drilling assignment in the Americas with Shell, a UK-headquartered energy giant.

Thanks to the latest deal with Shell, Noble’s Noble Developer semi-submersible rig will undertake drilling activities in the Americas for a fixed duration of 180 days. The rig is expected to start this job in Q3 2026. The U.S. drilling giant has explained that the firm contract value is approximately $70 million, including mobilization and demobilization.

Blake Denton, SVP of Marketing and Contracts, elaborated: “This new contract reaffirms our long-term commitment to delivering great results for Shell with a focus on safety and efficiency. The Noble Developer has previously drilled for Shell in this region, and we look forward to continuing this successful journey together.”

The drilling deal with Shell comes after the 2009-built rig secured work with Petronas Suriname E&P, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s energy giant Petronas, to drill three wells offshore Suriname. The drilling campaign, which is slated to begin around June 2025, will bring Noble around $84 million.

With a maximum drilling depth of 40,000 feet (about 12,192 meters), this is a DSS-21 column-stabilized, dynamically positioned semi-submersible rig capable of operating in water depths up to 10,000 feet (around 3,048 meters).

Noble was a busy bee in 20224, with multiple assignments obtained for its rig fleet, including a drilling job for one of its drillships in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, the U.S. player disclosed its intention to permanently retire two cold-stacked drillships.

While the rig owner expects a softer utilization environment throughout 2025 because of white space risk affecting all floater segments, it also anticipates better times in late 2025 and 2026.