Another year added to Vantage rig contract

Offshore drilling contractor Vantage Drilling has secured an additional year of contract for a jack-up unit while two other jack-up rigs have started their gigs.

In its latest fleet status report, released on 30 June 2021, Vantage said that the Aquamarine Driller jack-up started its contract with CPOC – JDA in Malaysia /Thailand. This comes following the conversion of a letter of award (LOA) to a contract.

Namely, Vantage revealed back in May 2021 that the Aquamarine rig had received two letters of award.

The first one was for an eight-month contract in South East Asia, starting in 2Q 2021. The second one was for a multi-year contract in the Middle East, starting in 1Q 2022. At the time, no details were revealed regarding clients and day rates.

Furthermore, Vantage said the Sapphire Driller jack-up had started its contract with Trident Energy in Equatorial Guinea. As previously reported, Trident Energy in June 2021 started its three-well campaign in E. Guinea as the country is working to revitalise its oil and gas sector and offset declining hydrocarbon production.

The rig has been preparing for the contract since the first quarter of 2021. Once the Trident contract expires, the rig will undergo a preparation period before starting a new contract in the Middle East in 2022.

Finally, Vantage said that TotalEnergies has exercised its option for the Emerald Driller rig contract in Qatar and added an additional year to the contract.

The jack-up has been working for Total, now TotalEnergies, for years now. The firm contract is scheduled to end in 2Q 2023 with options until the end of the year.