Keppel delivers first of five jack-up rigs to Borr Drilling

Offshore driller Borr Drilling has taken delivery of the jack-up rig Saga, built by Keppel in Singapore.

Built to Keppel’s KFELS Super B Class design, the Saga is the first of five jackup rigs that Keppel is building for Borr Drilling.

The CEO of Borr Drilling, Simon Johnson, said: “Jack-up utilisation is improving as we recover from the bottom of the business cycle. The market preferentially rewards contractors who invest in the latest designs from the best shipyards.

“Our partnership with Keppel FELS allows us to provide rigs with leading edge specifications ready to deliver the highest operational performance to our customer base. We are looking to be paid for the performance that we deliver and our relationship with Keppel FELS is one of several crucial partnerships we are fostering that are focused on improving industry outcomes. Our KPI’s are focused on accelerating time to first oil.”

The KFELS Super B Class rigs are designed to operate in 400 feet water depth and drill to 35,000 feet. The rigs are equipped with a two million pound drilling system and a maximum combined cantilever load of 3,700 kips.

As reported earlier, Borr Drilling in early 2017 said it would buy 15 high-specification jack-up rigs from Transocean, that is, Transocean’s entire jack-up fleet, including ten rigs already in the fleet and five newbuilds under construction at Keppel FELS Limited. The Saga is the first rig delivered of those five originally ordered by Transocean.

Keppel last year said that the first three rigs would be delivered between 2017 and 2018, while the remaining two rigs would be delivered in 2020.

Borr Drilling was formed in 2016 with the ambition of acquiring and operating drilling assets “in order to take advantage of opportunities in a rapidly changing oil and gas industry.”

Late in 2016, Borr agreed to buy a pair of 2013-built jack-up drilling rigs from the bankrupt Hercules Offshore. The rigs were delivered to the Norwegian driller in January 2017.

Apart from the above-mentioned rigs, Borr Drilling in October 2017 signed a master agreement for the acquisition of nine premium jack-up rigs from Sembcorp Marine’s PPL Shipyard.