Two Borr Drilling jack-up rigs booked for work in Middle East and Southeast Asia

Offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has secured letters of award (LOA) for two premium jack-up drilling rigs, which increase the company’s firm backlog by approximately 421 days, excluding optional periods.

According to Borr Drilling, the first of these two LOAs is for the Gerd jack-up rig, which got a binding LOA from an undisclosed customer for work in the Middle East. This contract will cover a firm scope of 270 days and one unpriced optional scope of 60 days. The firm scope has an estimated contract value of $47.7 million, including mobilisation and demobilisation.

The rig is slated to conclude its current contract with Addax in 3Q 2023, following the firm’s decision not to proceed with certain optional wells previously exercised. Afterwards, the rig will undergo mobilisation, statutory surveys, and recertification ahead of its new assignment, which is expected to start in December 2023.

The 2018-built Gerd jack-up rig has been working for Addax in Cameroon since February 2022. This rig is of PPL Pacific Class 400 design and can accommodate 150 people. Constructed at PPL Shipyard PTE in Singapore, the rig is capable of operating in water depths of up to 400 ft and its maximum drilling depth is 30,000 ft.

The second binding LOA was received for the Thor jack-up rig with an undisclosed customer for work in Southeast Asia. This contract, which will cover a firm scope of two wells with an estimated duration of 151 days, will have a contract value of $25.1 million, including mobilisation and demobilisation. This deal is expected to begin in December 2023, in direct continuation of the rig’s ongoing contact.

This rig secured a binding letter of award in December 2021 from an undisclosed operator in Southeast Asia, which was due to start in June 2022 for a duration of one year plus options. According to Borr’s fleet status report from November 2021, the 2019-built rig was warm-stacked in Singapore at the time.

This rig is of KFELS Super B Bigfoot Class design and can accommodate 150 people. With a maximum drilling depth of 35,000 ft, the Thor rig can operate in water depths of up to 400 ft.

Over the past few months, Borr Drilling revealed multiple new drilling jobs and extensions for its rig fleet. The most recent one was disclosed in June 2023 for operations offshore Thailand.