Pacific Drilling lands new job for drillship in Mexico

Offshore drilling contractor Pacific Drilling has secured a new contract in Mexico for its drillship Pacific Sharav.

The rig owner said on Wednesday that its Pacific Sharav drillship had been awarded a new two-well contract by Murphy in Mexico.

The contract also includes one option well. It is scheduled to start in November 2020 and end in February 2021. The rig’s dayrate under this contract is set at $230,000.

The drillship is currently under contract with Chevron in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which is set to end in May 2020. The dayrate under this deal is $225,000. The rig has been working for Chevron since 2014.

Pacific slips deeper into the red over Samsung arbitration

Pacific also on Wednesday published its 4Q 2019 report. According to the report, the company’s fourth quarter 2019 contract drilling revenue was $33.1 million compared to $54.3 million in the third quarter of 2019.

The decrease in revenue resulted primarily from the Pacific Sharav completing its legacy Chevron five-year contract in late August 2019 and rolling over to continue working for Chevron at a lower dayrate reflective of the current market. The decrease in revenue was partially offset by revenues earned from the beginning of contract operations for the Pacific Santa Ana and the Pacific Khamsin in December 2019.

Net loss for fourth-quarter 2019 was $308.1 million compared to $90.8 million in third-quarter 2019.

Included in the net loss for fourth-quarter 2019 is a $217.6 million loss from unconsolidated subsidiaries predominately related to the elimination of the receivable from the balance sheet due to the Pacific Zonda arbitration decision in favor of Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).