Transocean piles up more rig work as new drillship starts Shell gig

Offshore driller Transocean on Monday revealed a number of new contract awards for its drilling fleet consisting of drillships and semi-subs with emphasis on a long-term gig with Shell for one of its drillship. 

Transocean informed in its fleet status report on Monday that, on February 12, 2018, the newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship Deepwater Poseidon started operations on its ten-year contract with Shell in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The rig’s dayrate under this contract, which expires in February 2028, is $519,000.

The Deepwater Asgard drillship has been awarded a three-well contract plus a one-well option with Murphy Oil in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The contract starts in February and ends in June 2018. The rig’s dayrate has not been disclosed.

Transocean’s drillship Deepwater Invictus has been awarded a two-well contract extension with BHP Billiton in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The rig’s contract expires in March 2020.

The Discoverer India drillship, which has been idle since December 2016, has now won a five-well contract offshore with CNR off the Ivory Coast. The contract starts in April and ends in November 2018. The dayrate has not been disclosed.

The Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 drillship has been awarded a three-well contract plus five one-well options with Woodside offshore Myanmar. The contract is scheduled to start in April and expire in September 2018. The dayrate for this contract has not been disclosed.

The Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 drillship has won a six-well contract plus options offshore India. Transocean has not revealed the dayrate for this contract with India’s Reliance but it has revealed that it starts in July 2018 and ends in November 2019.

While Transocean managed to find additional work for several of its drillships, the 2010-built drillship Discoverer Luanda was stacked in February. The rig’s previous contract, which ended in January 2018, was with BP offshore Malaysia.

Furthermore, the 2009-built drillship Discoverer Clear Leader has been idle since November 2017 when its contract with Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico ended.

Semi-subs 

As previously reported, the semi-submersible rig GSF Development Driller I will operate for Quadrant Energy offshore Australia. The rig’s contract starts in April 2018 and ends in September 2018. The rig’s reactivation costs estimated at $28 million, were incurred primarily in 4Q 2017. The rig has already reached South Africa where it was scheduled to undertake maintenance before heading to Phoenix South well location off Australia.

The semi-submersible rig Deepwater Nautilus has received a one-well contract plus three one-well options with Shell offshore Brunei. The rig’s previous contract was also with Shell  but offshore Malaysia. It ends in March 2018. The new contract with Shell off Brunei starts in May and expires in August 2018 with an undisclosed dayrate.

The semi-sub Transocean Spitsbergen has been awarded a 22-well contract plus one three-well option and two one-well options in the Norwegian North Sea. The contract was awarded by Statoil last December. The estimated firm backlog associated with the contract is approximately $286 million. The contract is expected to start in July 2019 and end in April 2022.

The Paul B. Loyd, Jr. semi-submersible drilling rig last December received a one-well contract award in the U.K. North Sea. The contract with Repsol Sinopec is expected to end in March 2018 after which the rig will be working for Hurricane, until May 2018, and then Zenor Petroleum, until October 2018.

The contract amendment for the semi-sub Transocean Leader, that replaces the previous contract scheduled to expire in May 2019, is comprised of 210 days starting in July of 2018 in the U.K. North Sea. This contract is with EnQuest and it set to end in January 2019. Before that, the rig will be under contract in the U.K. North Sea with Dana Petroleum from April until June 2018 in the U.K. North Sea

The Transocean Arctic semi-submersible has been awarded two contracts with different customers in the Norwegian North Sea.

The first one is a three-well contract which also includes two one-well options; and the second one is a four-well contract.

The contract with Wellesley Petroleum starts in May and ends in September 2018 while the contract with DEA Norge starts in July 2019 and expires in May 2020. The dayrates have not been disclosed.

Offshore Energy Today Staff