Two jack-up rigs win long-term drilling assignments

Offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has secured new long-term deals for two jack-up rigs with undisclosed oil and gas companies in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Borr Drilling disclosed the new contract awards for two of its premium jack-up drilling rigs on Friday. These awards increase the firm’s backlog by approximately 2,030 days, excluding optional periods.

The first contract, awarded by an undisclosed firm for work in the Middle East, is for the Frigg jack-up rig. This five-year deal comes with extension options and is expected to start in the third quarter of 2023, following the completion of the rig’s reactivation. Borr Drilling underlines that the estimated contract value of the firm term, including the mobilisation fee, is $282 million.

The 2013-built Frigg jack-up rig is of KFELS Super A Class design and can operate in water depths of up to 400 ft. The rig’s maximum drilling depth is 35,000 ft.

On the other hand, the second deal is for the Gunnlod jack-up rig and this contract is scheduled to start in June 2023, following the completion of its current firm contracts and a statutory periodic survey. This rig has been hired for work in Southeast Asia, thanks to a binding Letter of Award (LOA), which Borr Drilling received from a company, whose name has not been revealed. The contract has an estimated duration of 205 days and the estimated contract value is $27.5 million.

The 2018-built Gunnlod rig is currently working for Thailand’s PTTEP in Malaysia. The contract started in April 2022 and is slated to end in February 2023. This rig is of PPL Pacific Class 400 design. It is capable of operating in water depths of up to 400 ft and its maximum drilling depth is 30,000 ft.

According to Borr Drilling, these contract awards “increase the company’s contracted fleet to 21 rigs out of a total of 22 delivered rigs.”

Regarding Borr Drilling’s recent deals, it is worth noting that the offshore drilling contractor secured three-year contracts for five jack-up rigs in Mexico a few months ago.