Thailand: Cudd Terminates Charter for Mermaid Maritime’s MTR-1 Rig

Mermaid Maritime Public Company Limited (“Mermaid”) refers to its previous announcement dated 27 July 2010 titled: “Mermaid’s Rig ‘MTR‐1’Awarded Accommodation Barge Contract in the Middle East” (“Contract”).

Mermaid announced that it has received notice of cessation of the said Contract from its charterers, Cudd Pressure Control Inc. (“Cudd”), a company based in the United States. Mermaid was engaged by Cudd as one of Cudd’s subcontractors to support Cudd’s offshore projects for its ultimate customer Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Saudi Aramco”).

The Contract commenced in August 2010 and had an expected duration of a minimum of 160 days. The cessation of the Contract at this juncture was a result of the premature cessation of Cudd’s own contract with Saudi Aramco, the circumstances of which occurred through no fault of Mermaid. Mermaid and Cudd are in discussions on arrangements surrounding the cessation of the Contract. Mermaid owns and operates two tender rigs, ‘MTR‐1’ and ‘MTR‐2’. The ‘MTR‐2’ remains operating at near‐full utilization levels under an offshore drilling contract with Chevron in Indonesia and Mermaid is pleased to announce that Mermaid’s operations on the ‘MTR‐2’ recently received an Grade ‘A’ rating from Chevron for Contractor Health Environment Safety Management (“CHESM”). The ‘A’ rating is the highest CHESM rating awarded to contractors working within the operational control of Chevron global upstream organizations.

Mermaid is presently exploring potential opportunities for the ‘MTR‐1’ as a drilling unit and/or accommodation barge support unit and will make another announcement in due course in the event that a new contract is secured.

[mappress]

Source: Mermaid, November  9, 2010;