Noble Corp. scoops deals for two rigs

Offshore driller Noble Corporation has been awarded new deals for two of its drilling rigs.

Noble reported on Thursday in its latest fleet status report that the 2013-built drillship Noble Bob Douglas was awarded a contract with an undisclosed operator in the Gulf of Mexico.

The contract for the Gusto P10000 design DP rig will begin in late November 2017 and last until February 2018. The dayrate for the rig, like the charterer, remained undisclosed.

Noble Bob Douglas will begin work for the charterer after it completes its contract with Tullow Oil in Suriname. According to the fleet report, the contract with the oil company will end in early November.

The second deal will see the Noble Houston Colbert work in Qatar with Dolphin.

The F&G JU-3000N design jack-up rig will work for the company between February 2018 and February 2019 for an undisclosed dayrate.

Apart from the two new deals, the company provided clarification on the end date for a deal with Total in Brunei. Namely, the 2014-built Noble Sam Hartley jack-up will stay with the French company until late December 2017 on a $111,000 dayrate.

In a fleet report from September 14, Noble said that the jack-up would remain with Total until sometime during the fourth quarter.

Likewise, Noble specified the start and finish dates for the Noble Regina Allen deal in Canada with ExxonMobil. The rig will begin work in early December 2017 and would end in early December 2019.

The rig was hired for a 22-well P&A program expected to require up to two years to complete. In its previous fleet report, the company said that the deal would begin between 4Q 2017 and 1Q 2018 and end between 4Q 2019 and 1Q 2020.