India: Aban Offshore Adds Amendment to Deep Venture Contract

Aban Offshore today announced that `Venture Drilling (a 50% indirect joint venture of the company) and Maersk Oil Angola (Maersk 0il) have reached a mutual agreement to amend their drilling contract relating to drillship Deep Venture, bringing the specified term of the contract to midnight of Apr. 20, 2010.

Maersk Oil will redeliver the drillship Deep Venture upon completion of the Chissonga 2 well in Angola, expectedly late April 2010, against an early termination fee of USD 64 million.

Shares of the company declined Rs 13.15, or 1.07%, to settle at Rs 1,218.50. The total volume of shares traded was 168,952 at the BSE (Thursday).

Aban Offshore Ltd. (formerly Aban Loyd Chiles Offshore Ltd.) is India’s largest offshore drilling services provider to oil companies, mainly for ONGC. It is now ventured into international waters as one of its five rigs is doing work for an Iranian oil company. The company listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange Ltd, Reji Abraham, Managing Director of Aban Loyd is the 605th richest man in the world and the richest man in Kerala, India.

The group has also ventured into construction, offshore and onshore drilling, wind energy and power generation, Information Technology enabled services, hotels and resorts, tea plantations and in marketing.

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Source: abanoffshore,April 22, 2010;