Borr Drilling sheds 14 jack-up rigs

Offshore driller Borr Drilling has sold 14 old jack-up rigs en bloc to a non-drilling company as part of its rationalization program following Paragon Offshore takeover.

The rigs will be delivered to the new unnamed owner over the next 30 days and the disposal is expected to contribute up to $16 million in profit to Borr’s 2Q 2018 results, the driller said on Monday while announcing the sale.

The company further said that 13 of the rigs will be demobilized as drilling rigs and will be targeted for mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) orientated work. The remaining unit is allocated to development work for a specific life of field project. None of the rigs will re-enter the international jack-up drilling market post this transaction.

Borr Drilling noted it has, since the conclusion of the Paragon transaction earlier this year, actively tried to reduce the daily operating cost and capex linked to rigs which from a technical, economical or safety perspective are not feasible to return to revenue generating drilling activities.

Since the beginning of the year, Borr and Paragon have sold in total 26 rigs which will all leave the actively marketed jack-up fleet. According to Borr, the direct stacking cost for these 26 rigs was estimated to be around $35 million yearly which will be reduced to zero when the last rig is delivered within the next 30 days.

Out of the total delivered jack up fleet of 531 units, in total 244 units (46 %) were delivered prior to 1988. In total, 104 of these older units have been stacked for more than a year. The cost and investments required to bring old, unemployed rigs back to the drilling market cannot be defended from a financial, operational or safety point of view, Borr explained.

Borr’s fleet 

Borr Drilling said it has executed its divestment strategy and will, after the rationalization of the fleet and delivery of the remaining nine newbuilds, have 24 high spec jack-ups, making it the largest premium jack-up operator in the world.

In addition, Borr Drilling owns five older jack-ups and one older North Sea semi-submersible all performing contractual obligations, and two older jack-ups unemployed in the North Sea Market.

CEO, Svend Anton Maier, said: “We have, over the last 17 months, been able to build a unique fleet of 24 high specification assets acquired at attractive prices funded by a strong combination of equity and attractive seller financing.”

He concluded: “We see clear signs that the tender activity in the market is increasing, to a large extent, driven by NOCs and major oil companies. With the solid operational platform built both organically and through the Paragon acquisition, we are very well positioned for what we see as the start of the next upturn cycle in the jack-up market.”