Transocean adds $297 million to backlog as Petrobras extends two drillships

Offshore drilling contractor Transocean has been awarded contract extensions for two of its drillships that have been working for Petrobras.

Transocean said on Wednesday that Petrobras had exercised a 680-day preexisting, fixed-price option for the Deepwater Corcovado, and an 815-day preexisting, fixed-price option for the Deepwater Mykonos drillship.

Together these contract extensions add approximately $297 million to Transocean’s backlog.

Both rigs will continue to operate in Brazil and are subject to annual indexed day rate escalations.

The initial contracts for the two drillships were awarded back in March 2019.

The Deepwater Corcovado was awarded a 629-day contract, while Mykonos secured a 550-day contract, plus options which have now been exercised.

The estimated firm contract backlog was approximately $123 million for the Corcovado and $118 million for the Mykonos.

This is not the first time for the two drillships to work in Brazil with Petrobras. Petrobras had also used the two drillships back in 2012, while they were still owned by Ocean Rig before it was acquired by Transocean.