Transocean nets $953M in drilling contracts

Transocean Ltd. has, since April 17, received new drilling contracts valued $953 million in total.

In its fleet status report, the drilling contractor said that its Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 drillship was awarded a three year contract offshore Brazil at a dayrate of $440,000 ($482 million estimated backlog). The rig’s prior dayrate was $510,000. The drillship, currently working for Reliance in India, will begin its contract with Petrobras in January 2015.

The Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 is a double hulled dynamically positioned drillship capable of operating in moderate environments and water depths up to 3,657 m (12,000 ft).

Furthermore, The Paul B. Loyd, Jr. semi-submersible drilling rig was awarded a two year contract extension in the U.K. North Sea at a dayrate of $430,000 ($314 million estimated backlog). The rig’s prior dayrate was $447,000.

Also, The GSF Development Driller II jack-up rig secured a three-well contract in the Black Sea offshore Romania at a dayrate of $360,000 ($97 million estimated backlog). The rig’s prior dayrate was $606,000.

As for the GSF Constellation II jack-up rig, Transocean said that the customer exercised a one year option offshore Gabon at a dayrate of $165,000 ($60 million estimated backlog).

Transocean added that the remaining backlog from the Sedco 710 contract in Brazil has been transferred to the Sedco 706.

Out of service days

Estimated 2014 planned out-of-service time increased by a net 485 days, including 354 days primarily associated with contract preparation and mobilization on the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1, GSF Development Driller II and Polar Pioneer; and 121 days related to the shipyard acceleration into 2014 from 2015 on the GSF C.R. Luigs. Estimated 2015 planned out-of-service time decreased by a net 84 days. These estimates are subject to change due to a variety of factors, including changes in the company’s business plans and customers’ requirements.