Transocean adds $158M to backlog through five rig deals

Offshore drilling firm Transocean has added five drilling rig contracts since its previous rig fleet status report in April.

According to the latest fleet status report, Transocean has managed to secure work for two semi-submersible drilling rigs and three drillships. The contracts have added around $158 million to the company’s backlog, bringing it to a total of $11.4 billion.

In Canada, Transocean has secured a three-well contract for the Transocean Barents drilling rig. The 2009-built semi-submersible drilling unit will stay with Suncor until October 2019.

The Canadian oil firm will have options to extend for three more wells. The rig is operating at a dayrate of $285,000.

In Egypt, Burullus has chartered the Discoverer India drillship on a three-month contract, plus six-one well options. The dayrate is $135,000 with the contract starting in September, and ending in December 2019.

Furthermore, the drilling company has managed to keep its 2001-built semi-sub Leiv Eiriksson in Norway, with a client exercising two one-well options. The rig is operating in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea where it will stay with Lundin Petroleum until August. It will then be taken over by ConocoPhillips which will keep the drilling rig busy until March 2020. The dayrate was not disclosed.

The fourth new contract shared in Transocean’s update on Thursday is for the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 drillship. The drillship has been operating in India for Reliance. The Indian oil firm has now decided to extend the contract for another year.

The one-year extension starts in November. Also, the extension comes with an increased dayrate for the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1.

The current contract with Reliance for the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 is on a dayrate of $124,000. The dayrate will now increase to $127,000 for the 2009 built ultra-deepwater drillship.

The fifth contract is for the Deepwater Asgard drillship in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where Murphy Oil has awarded the ultra-deepwater rig a two-well contract.

The contract starts in August and will run until October 2019 on a dayrate of $185,000.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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