The latest data from Westwood Global Energy showed the number of active and contracted jack-ups rose to 378 in week 18, 2022, with the Middle East and south Asia regions adding rigs and the North Sea continuing to hold steady, week-on-week
In contracts news this week, Houston-based drilling contractor Valaris puiblished its fleet results for Q1 2022, reporting the standard-duty, modern jack-up rig Valaris 140 won a three-year contract with Saudi Aramco.
Gulf Marine Services (GMS) has secured a two‐year contract for a K-class vessel with an unnamed national oil company in the Middle East North Africa region. That contract commences this month and brings GMS’ secured utilisation for the year to 88%.
Transocean reported its drillship DeepwaterSkyros was awarded a new 10-well contract in Angola at US$310,000 per day excluding bonuses, expected to commence in December 2022 in direct continuation of its current engagement. The contract totals approximately 540 days of work. Additionally, the company’s drillship DeepwaterInvictus was awarded two, one-well extensions totalling approximately 90 days employment at a rate of US$375,000 per day. All tallied, these fixtures add approximately US$200M to Transocean’s backlog.
Seadrill’s trio of jack-ups – West Ariel, West Cressida and West Leda – will commence work in the Middle East between Q1 and Q2 2023. The firm-term of each contract is three years and, combined, the contracts are expected to bring in approximately US$404M inclusive of mobilisation revenue. And in the US Gulf of Mexico, the company sealed two deals worth a cumulative US$105M. The West Neptune rig snagged a four-well extension with two one-well options with LLOG Exploration Offshore, with a firm term of 200 days, which will keep the unit employed into August 2023. Seadrill’s Sevan Louisiana rig will begin a three-well extension with Talos Production in August, keeping the unit occupied for 105 days.
Jack-up rig Maersk Resolute will continue to be employed in the Dutch North Sea after extending its one-well contract with Dutch exploration and production firm ONE-Dyas.
Maersk Drilling said the contract extension, valued at US$6.3M, is expected to commence in May 2022 in direct continuation of the rig’s current work scope, with an estimated duration of 75 days. As noted in a previous report, the unit is scheduled to commence a 19-month plugging and abandonment contract upon completion of its contract with ONE-Dyas.
Active floaters added one unit week-on-week, according to Westwood Global Energy’s count, from 138 active units in week 17 to 139 in week 18.
Valaris chief executive Anton Dibowitz said floater rates had improved across geographies and cited the deal the company struck for the Valaris DS-12 unit, which will work for an unnamed operator (described as ‘major’) offshore Angola and the Republic of Congo, for a two-well contract expected to take place during Q1 2023 with a total contract value of US$26.2M.
TotalEnergies EP Brazil has extended the Valaris DS-15 drillship’s one-well contract by 100 days, in direct continuation of the current firm programme.
Mr Dibowitz said, “We are in the midst of a transitional period as we incur reactivation costs to put three drillships and one semi-submersible back to work on long-term contracts,” adding, “we continue to expect that all four floaters will be on contract by the middle of the year with financial results expected to improve meaningfully as these reactivations are completed.”
Valaris inked a one-well contract with an undisclosed operator offshore Australia for the heavy-duty jack-up Valaris 107. The contract commences in July 2022 for a duration of 37 days operating at a rate of US$112,000 per day. Following that, Valaris 107 will work for Eni offshore Australia for a 70-day, one-well gig commencing in August, operating at a day rate of US$115,000 per day. Valaris Norway secured a 29-day contract extension with Harbour Energy in the UK North Sea and a 14-day contract extension with BP in the UK North Sea.
Two managed rigs, Mad Dog and Thunder Horse, extended their employment with BP in the US Gulf of Mexico by two years. The contract extensions were effective 27 January 2022. Another vessel, DS-11, was awarded an eight-well contract for a deepwater project in the US Gulf.
The contract has been novated from TotalEnergies to Equinor. And Valaris sold its Valaris 113 and 114 units to ADES Saudi Limited for a total of US$125M, while the Valaris 67 has been sold and retired from the company fleet.
