John Fredriksen-controlled Northern Drilling has entered into agreements to acquire two newbuild ultra-deepwater drillships from South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) for the bargain price of just US $296 million apiece. The drillships were originally ordered by Seadrill in 2013 when the price tag for modern newbuild drillship was still close to … [Read more...]
Ocean Rig Postpones Delivery of Newbuild Drillship Ocean Rig Santorini at Samsung Heavy
Offshore driller Ocean Rig has announced it has reached a deal with South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries to postpone the delivery of the newbuild drillship Ocean Rig Santorini by a little over two years. Under the agreement with SHI, Ocean Rig said the drillship will now be delivered on September 30, 2019, but delivery may be pushed forward at the option of … [Read more...]
BSEE: Worker Killed Aboard Petrobras 10000 Drillship in U.S. Gulf of Mexico
A drillship worker was killed last week in an accident on the rig floor of a Petrobras-contracted drillship in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico about 172 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has confirmed. The offshore oil and gas operator, Petrobras America, reported that the fatality occurred onboard the Petrobras … [Read more...]
Oil’s Biggest Rigs Get Sent to Junkyard as Daily Losses Mount
By David Wethe (Bloomberg) -- Transocean Ltd. is finally sending Pathfinder to its grave, after two years in a Caribbean purgatory that cost about $15,000 a day. The move by the world’s biggest offshore-rig operator signals just how bleak the future looks for deepwater drilling. Pathfinder is the most famous of six floating rigs the company is scrapping in burials … [Read more...]
Two-Year Contract for Ultra-Deepwater Drillship ‘Deepwater Invictus’
Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) announced Tuesday that its ultra-deepwater drillship Deepwater Invictus has been awarded a two-year contract with options by a subsidiary of BHP Billiton. Transocean said the backlog associated with the firm contract is approximately $106 million and the contract will commence in the second quarter of 2018. It includes three one-year priced … [Read more...]