Rosneft to buy share in North Atlantic Drilling

Rosneft, North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. and Seadrill Limited signed an Investment and Cooperation Agreement at the 18th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to form a long-term partnership with a view to capture the opportunities in developing Rosneft’s offshore and onshore projects until at least 2022. The signing ceremony was led by Vladimir Putin, the President of Russian Federation.

The agreement contemplates Rosneft acquiring a significant stake in North Atlantic Drilling Ltd. with the latter entering Russia’s onshore drilling market, and signing of long-term contracts for onshore and offshore drilling. The parties also signed a letter of award for 6 harsh environment offshore drilling rigs. Overall, the use of up to 9 offshore drilling rigs is contemplated.

“Participation in a leading company that specializes in harsh environment drilling operations is an important step in the journey to develop Russia’s Arctic shelf. Signing large-scale long-term contracts will enable Rosneft to secure what’s needed to develop offshore projects in parallel with implementing the onshore drilling costs optimization program. I am confident that very soon we will see a significant positive effect on drilling operations both in on- and offshore projects,” Igor Sechin said following the signing ceremony.

Alf Ragnar Lovdal, the Chief Executive Officer of North Atlantic Drilling, said: “We have sought to access the growth opportunity represented by the Russian market for several years, and we are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Rosneft for this landmark transaction. The Russian market is one of the most attractive opportunities in the world and offers tremendous growth potential for North Atlantic Drilling. By partnering best in class drilling with a supermajor which produces over 5m barrels per day, we, after closing of this transaction, will have created a powerful force in the Russian market and for Arctic regions on a global basis. We look forward to closing this important transaction and working with Rosneft for many years to come.

NADL is an offshore harsh environment drilling company with focus on the North Atlantic basin. The company has nine drilling units in the fleet, including five semi-submersibles, a drillship, and three jack-up rigs. Seadrill Limited currently owns 70% of the outstanding shares and the company is listed on the NYSE and Norwegian OTC with a market capitalization of approximately US$2.1 billion.