Maersk Drilling sells Maersk Giant jack-up rig to Australasian company

Danish offshore driller Maersk Drilling has said it has entered into an agreement to sell the jack-up rig Mærsk Giant to an Australasian-based independent O&G operator. 

Mærsk Giant was delivered in 1986, and upgraded in 2012. The rig is currently stacked in Esbjerg, Denmark. The new owners expect to use the rig for their Australasian operations, Maersk Drilling said.

Maersk Drilling did not say who the client was, nor what the value of the deal was. Bassoe Analytics puts the rig’s value between $4 million and $6 million. Prior to the sale, VesselsValue had the rig valued at $2 million.

“The sale is part of our fleet optimization in line with our strategic priority of maintaining a fleet of modern, high-quality assets. Given the limited prospects for Mærsk Giant, we believe a sale creates the highest shareholder value”, says Jesper Ridder Olsen, CFO of Maersk Drilling.

In 2015, Maersk Drilling decommissioned the jack-up Maersk Endurer (delivered in 1984), and in 2016, Maersk Drilling converted the jack-up Maersk Guardian (delivered in 1986) from a drilling rig to an accommodation rig.

The Mærsk Giant is one of the ultra-harsh environment jack-ups in Maersk Drilling’s fleet. The rig is fully equipped for high pressure/high temperature (HP/HT) drilling and is designed for year-round operation in the North Sea, in water depths up to 107 m (350 ft) with an available leg length below the hull of 132 m (435 ft).

Last time Offshore Energy Today reported on the Maersk Giant was back in late 2016 when the rig returned from its last gig with the company that was at the time known as Dong Energy. The rig apparently hasn’t worked since, and Dong Energy has in the meantime sold its oil and gas business to focus on offshore wind under the name Ørsted.

Prior to this, the rig worked for Talisman Energy. The Canada-based operator, which no longer exists as it was bought by Spain’s Repsol, used the Maersk Giant for several well plugging operations on the Varg field in the Norwegian section of the North Sea.

Offshore Energy Today Staff