Paragon nets jack-up work. Stacks drillship after early release by Petrobras

Drilling contractor Paragon Offshore has been awarded contracts for two of its jack-ups and stacked a drillship that was previously under a contract with the Brazilian oil company Petrobras. 

In its latest fleet status report issued on Monday, the drilling contractor reported that its 1977-built drillship Paragon DPDS3 was stacked in Puerto Rico.

To remind, Petrobras early-released the drillship in August 2016 as the company is disputing approximately 380 days of the drilling contract, which was scheduled to end late August 2017. The drillship operated for Petrobras offshore Brazil under a dayrate of $347,000.

“We will pursue all legal remedies available to us under the contract,” Paragon stated.

The company added that, during the contract term, the rig was eligible for a maximum 15% performance bonus.

The Brazilian oil company also released Paragon’s other drillship, the DPDS2 in September 2015 although it was originally contracted through early March 2017.

New jack-up work

Paragon also informed on Monday that its 1982-built jack-up rig Paragon C461 has received a new contract from mid-September 2016 to mid-October 2016.

The jack-up rig has been under a contract with the Dutch exploration and production company Oranje-Nassau Energie (ONE) since early May 2015 with an end date set for mid-November 2017. However, Tulip Oil will take over the contract for the rig from mid-September until mid-October this year after which the rig will go back under the contract with ONE with the end date now set for mid-December 2017.

Paragon added that current Tulip Oil and ONE end dates reflect best current estimates and that for every day of the contract with Tulip Oil, a day is added to the ONE contract backlog.

In addition, the company said that its 1981-built jack-up drilling rig Paragon HZ1 has been awarded a new contract for light well intervention services with Wintershall. The rig will operate in the Netherlands under a dayrate of $53,000. The contract is estimated to start in mid-October 2016 and end in mid-November 2016.

The rig’s previous contract, that lasted from July 2015 until early September 2016, was also with Wintershall but in the UK and with a higher dayrate that totaled $142,000.

Offshore Energy Today Staff