Rowan gets early drillship termination, more jack-up work

Offshore driller Rowan Companies has received early termination for one of its drillships. The driller has also seen several of its rigs come off contract and several others have won more work. 

In its latest quarterly fleet status report, issued on Wednesday, Rowan said that the 2014-built Rowan Resolute drillship received notice of early termination on November 13, 2017.

The drillship’s contract with Anadarko in the Gulf of Mexico will end on June 1, 2018 instead of the scheduled expiration of August 6, 2018. Rowan expects to receive a lump sum payment of $27.7 million related to early termination. The rig’s dayrate until the end of the contract is $580,000.

Rowan recognized revenue of $10 million (from 1Q 2018) in 4Q 2017 for the drillship Rowan Reliance due to acceleration of deferred revenue amortization related to the Cobalt contract when an option expired. There will be no revenue recognition in 2018. The 2014-built drillship previously worked for Cobalt in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Previous contract for the jack-up rig Rowan Stavanger with Repsol Norge ended on February 5, 2018. The rig owner then signed an extension with Repsol in Norway for approximately 150 days of accommodation work with estimated start between September – November 2018 followed by priced options. The contract, with an undisclosed dayrate, is scheduled to end in February 2019.

The Rowan Gorilla VII jack-up rig is now at a shipyard in the UK as Perenco did not exercise options as previously anticipated. Perenco had a priced option to extend the rig’s contract for a period of 15 to 110 days. A life enhancement is currently being performed on the rig with estimated completion at the end of the first quarter 2018.

The Bob Palmer jack-up was awarded an extension by Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia until February 28, 2018. The rig’s previous extension with the Saudi company ended in December 2017.

The contract for the Rowan EXL III jack-up rig in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico ended on January 7, 2018. The rig previously worked for Arena and W&T Offshore.

As previously reported by Offshore Energy Today, the Ralph Coffman jack-up was hired by GulfSlope Energy for its Gulf of Mexico drillign program. The rig’s previous contract with an undisclosed operator off Trinidad ended on December 24, 2017. The contract with GulfSlope is for approximately 120 days with an estimated start on June 1, 2018.

Rowan recently bought two jack-up rigs, the P-59 and P-60, from Petrobras in Brazil. Following the completion of the transaction for both rigs on January 4, 2018, Rowan is planning to mobilize the rigs to the Middle East at the beginning of the second quarter 2018 which will be followed by time in the shipyard with an estimated availability for work on September 1, 2018.

Rowan has cold stacked its jack-up Rowan Gorilla IV following the completion of its previous contract on December 29 with Arena in the Gulf of Mexico.

The SAR 201 jack-up, contributed to ARO Drilling, the 50/50 joint venture between Rowan and Saudi Aramco, by the Saudi company, is scheduled to start operations on February 15, 2018 on a three year contract with Saudi Aramco at $79k per day.

Offshore Energy Today Staff