Following the delivery of a jack-up drilling rig from India’s Aban Offshore, the UAE-headquartered offshore drilling contractor, Shelf Drilling, has renamed this latest addition to its fleet of offshore rigs.
Back in mid-June 2022, Shelf Drilling revealed that one of its subsidiaries had entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of Aban Offshore to buy theDeep Driller 7rig for a purchaseprice of $30 million.
The Deep Driller 7jack-up rig is of Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 design. The rig was built in 2008 and is capable of operating in water depths of up to 375 ft. It can accommodate 120 people.
In an update on Wednesday, the UAE player confirmed that its wholly-owned subsidiary has
completed the purchase and acceptance of this “premium high-spec” jack-up rig. Shelf Drilling also disclosed that the rig has been renamed Shelf Drilling Victory.
The companyis actively working on expanding its fleet of offshore rigs. To this end, its subsidiary, Shelf Drilling NorthSea, inked a deal with Noble Corporation in late June to acquire five jack-up rigs.
The rigs are being sold to address the potential concerns identified by the UK’s competition regulator in regards to the proposed merger of Noble and Maersk Drilling.
In addition, the UAE-based player has been securing new contracts and extending existing ones for its fleet of rigs, which support its expectations concerning the globaljack-up rig utilisation and pricing, which the firm believes will beat pre-pandemic levels this year.
Themost recent contract extensionwas disclosed last month for theShelf Drilling Achieverjack-up rig in direct continuation of its current contract in the Arabian Gulf
