Shell chooses Valaris drillship for drilling ops at giant oil & gas project in Brazilian waters

December 12, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Bermuda-incorporated offshore drilling contractor Valaris has landed a new rig deal with Shell, a UK-headquartered energy giant, which will enable one of its drillships to carry out drilling activities at an oil and gas development off the coast of Brazil.

Valaris DS-8 drillship; Source: Wartsila

While revealing a multi-year contract award for the Valaris DS-8 drillship, the rig owner explains that this assignment is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027. This rig job is for Shell’s Orca project, formerly known as Gato do Mato, deepwater oil and gas development in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil.

With an estimated duration of approximately 800 days and a total contract value of around $300 million, the rig deal also includes options with a total estimated duration of about one year.

Anton Dibowitz, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased to have been selected by Shell to provide drilling services on the Orca project, demonstrating both their confidence in Valaris to deliver complex deepwater drilling solutions and the growing IOC interest in developments offshore Brazil.

“We continue to successfully execute our commercial strategy, with over $2.5 billion of backlog secured year to date to support future earnings and cash flow.”

The Orca project is designed to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day (boepd). The start-up of production is scheduled for 2029. TechnipFMC is in charge of integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (iEPCI), thank to a deal worth over $1 billion.

The pre-salt gas-condensate discovery spans two contiguous blocks: BM-S-54, a concession contract entered into by Shell in 2005, and Sul de Gato do Mato, a production sharing agreement (PSA) obtained in 2017. Vallourec was recently hired to supply line pipes for the project.