Noble cold stacks another semi-sub rig

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has decided to cold stack another one of its semi-submersible drilling rigs amid challenging drilling market.

In its latest fleet status report for a period between November 23 until December 20, 2016, the driller said on Tuesday that the 1980-built drilling rig Noble Max Smith was cold stacked. The rig, of a Noble EVA 4000 design, has seen service in the United States, Mexico and Brazil.

It is currently located at a shipyard in Singapore. The semi-sub, capable of operating in water depths of up to 7,000 feet, previously worked for Shell offshore Brazil under a contract that started in 2013. After the contract with Shell ended, the rig was moved from Brazil to a shipyard in Singapore with the semi-submersible heavy lift ship Dockwise Vanguard.

Noble Max Smith was operational during 2015 but was off contract during 2016.

The offshore driller currently has nine stacked rigs, five cold stacked and four available and warm stacked.

In related news, Noble recently agreed with the oil major Shell to amend the pair’s existing long-term contracts on three ultra-deepwater drillships, Noble Globetrotter I, Noble Globetrotter II, and Noble Bully II. The amendments included idling of two of those drillships in 2017.

Offshore Energy Today Staff