Noble Corporation, a U.S.-based offshore drilling contractor, has secured two Gulf of Mexico contracts.
The company’s Noble Jim Thompson rig, currently under a contract with Shell in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, will work for Hess at a dayrate of $300.000. The rig’s current dayrate is $376.000.
After the Shell contract expires in December this year, the semi-submersible drilling rig will go to a shipyard for regulatory inspection and maintenance where it will stay approximately five months.
The one-year drilling contract with Hess in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico will begin in early May 2015.
Also, Noble Corporation said it had secured a contract for its Noble Dany Adkins semi-submersible rig. The rig, also working for Shell in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at a dayrate of $498.000 will begin its new contract with DGE early in November this year.
The new contract comes at a reduced dayrate when compared with the Shell contract. The new dayrate for the DGE contract has been set at $317.000. The Noble Dany Adkins will also go on a regulatory inspection and maintenance prior to starting its new, minimum 200-day program with DGE. The inspection is expected to keep the rig off rate approximately 45 days.