Borr Drilling signs LoI for jack-up contract. In talks for four more

Borr Drilling, an Oslo-listed jack-up rig operator, has signed a letter of intent for the Prospector 5 jack-up drilling rig.

The potential contract with an undisclosed operator should keep the rig busy in the North Sea region from April to October 2019.

The rig, built in 2014, is currently warm-stacked in the UK, having previously worked for CNOOC, helping the Chinese company discover the largest UK find since 2008 in January 2019 – the Glengorm discovery.

In its fleet status report released on Tuesday, Borr had nothing to show in the “New Contracts / Extensions / Amendments” section.

However, apart from the letter of intent, Borr said it was in advanced talks with undisclosed operators for multi-year contracts for four newbuild rigs – Grid, Gersemi, Saga, and Skald, all warm-stacked in Singapore.

The offshore drilling company, which owns a fleet of 36 offshore drilling rigs,  last week posted the 4Q 2018 net loss of $110.7 million down from a loss of $61,7 million in the corresponding quarter of 2017. Net loss in the third quarter of 2018 was $39 million.

On average, 8.6 rigs were operating during the fourth quarter of 2018 generating operating revenues of US$53.5 million compared to operating revenues of US$0.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 where only one rig had started operations just before the year-end.

Borr Drilling last week said it would, based on current contracts, be cash-flow positive from end of Q2, 2019. The company has labeled the contracting environment as positive.

Offshore Energy Today Staff