Seadrill's West Gemini Awarded Contract in West Africa

Seadrill’s West Gemini drillship. Photo credit: Seadrill

Offshore drilling contractor Seadrill has announced a contract award from an undisclosed customer for its ultra-deepwater drillship West Gemini in West Africa.

The nine-well contract includes three options, each for two wells, and has a total contract value of approximately $84 million. Commencement is expected to start in early Q4 2019 and continue through Q4 2020.

According to Seadrill’s latest Fleet Status Report, the West Gemini in June completed an 18-month contract with ENI in Angola. In the company’s first quarter 2019 results, Seadrill CEO, Anton Dibowitz, highlighted Angola among the regions where they are seeing opportunities in the deepwater market.

“We continue to see increased contracting activity in the deepwater market, in many instances with improved contract terms such as mobilization payments and certain capex being paid for by the customer,” said Dibowitz. “While the spot market for short term work remains competitive, we are starting to see improvements in rates for longer term work.”

“Our recent announcements relating to opportunities in Angola and Qatar position us well for work in these regions and we are excited by the prospect,” Dibowitz added.

In February, Seadrill established a 50:50 joint venture with Angolan oil and gas producer Sonangol to operate four drillships, focusing on opportunities in Angolan waters.

Seadrill, once of the world’s largest offshore drilling contractors, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2018 after completing a reorganization that pumped $1 billion of new capital into the company. The company filed for Chapter 11 in September 2017 with debt and liabilities of over $10 billion.