Transocean’s new drillships start operations

Transocean, one of the world largest offshore drilling contractors, has announced its two new deepwater drillships have begun drilling operations.

In its fleet status report for August, Transocean has revealed that its Deepwater Asgard drillship, recently delivered from DSME yard in South Korea, started operations on its three-year contract on August 21, 2014 at a dayrate of $600,000.

The report does not reveal details on the client’s identity nor on the drilling location for the Deepwater Asgard. To remind, the company last year said that the Deepwater Asgard would be deployed offshore Indonesia, to work for an international oil company.

Also, late in July, the newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship, Deepwater Invictus, began its three-year contract with BHP Billiton in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at a dayrate of $595,000. The drillship was built at the DSME shipyard in Korea, and it is capable of operating in water depths up to 12,000 feet and drilling wells up to 40,000 feet deep.

$78M in new deals

As for the contracts signed since the last fleet status update issued July 16, Transocean said that the total value of new agreements was approximately $78 million.

The Jack Bates semi-submersible drilling rig was awarded a two-well contract in Australia with Japan’s Inpex at a dayrate of $420,000, ($59 million estimated backlog). The rig’s prior dayrate was $380,000.

Additionally, the GSF Celtic Sea semi-submersible rig was awarded a one-well contract in Angola with Vaalco at a dayrate of $338,000 ($15 million estimated backlog). The contract is expected to begin in November 2014 and it will take a month to complete.

Furthermore, Transocean confirmed it had sold the GSF Magellan rig, without providing financial details.