New assignment for Aquadrill drillship in Indonesia

Offshore drilling contractor Aquadrill, formerly known as Seadrill Partners, and Vantage Holdings’ subsidiary have reached an agreement to provide a 6th generation drillship for operations in Indonesia.

Back in March 2021, Vantage was approved as a manager of four deepwater floating rigs for Aquadrill while the company was under Chapter 11 and still named Seadrill Partners. The management agreement included Capella and  Polaris drillships and the semi-submersibles Leo and Sirius.

Aquadrill, then Seadrill Partners, emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 and later on revealed the name change. In October 2021, Aquadrill sold both Sirius and Leo semi-submersible rigs managed by Vantage and reached an agreement for the drillship Capella to embark on a two-well contract – one well with Premier Oil and one with Repsol – in Indonesia.

In an update on Tuesday, Aquadrill disclosed that the Capella sixth-generation drillship was hired for a firm four-well contract plus two priced and three mutually agreed optional wells for operations in Indonesia.

According to the firm, the total contract value for the firm portion of the contract was expected to be approximately $138 million. The drillship’s job in Indonesia is expected to start in early May 2023 and run until mid-April 2024.

If priced options are exercised, the rig is expected to be available in early September 2024 and the total additional contract value is expected to be around $56 million. The offshore drilling contractor’s fleet status report from November shows that this drillship will be working for Premier Oil once again.

When it comes to Aquadrill’s other recent activities, it is worth noting that the company extended the charter hire agreement with a subsidiary of Diamond Offshore in August 2022 for one of its drillships, enabling it to continue carrying out operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Currently, Diamond Offshore manages two drillships – Auriga and Vela – on behalf of Aquadrill.