Transocean Delays Drillships, Lands New Contracts

Deepwater Champion drillship. Photo: Transocean

Transocean, one of the world’s largest offshore drilling contractors, revealed Tuesday that in the past month the company has landed $109 million in new drilling contracts, but said it has delayed the delivery of two newbuild drillships at Singapore’s Jurong Shipyard.

The new revelations were revealed Tuesday in the company’s monthly Fleet Update Summary. Highlights of the report include new contracts, changes to existing contracts, and changes in estimated planned out-of-service time for rigs.

Since May’s report, Transocean says that it has landed new contracts totaling $109 million. The contracts include a one year contract extension offshore Thailand for the Transocean Andaman jackup at a dayrate of $115,000, adding an estimated $42 million to its backlog; a three month contract extension in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for its Deepwater Champion drillship at a dayrate of $395,000, adding an estimated $36 million to its backlog; a one well contract extension in the U.K. sector of the North Sea for its GSF Galaxy II jackup at a dayrate of $190,000, adding an estimated $17 million to its backlog; and a 45 day contract offshore Nigeria for the Sedco Express semisubmersible, adding an estimated $14 million to its backlog.

Transocean also said it has amended its construction contracts with Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiary, Jurong Shipyard, to delay the delivery of its two newbuild, ultra-deepwater drillships by 24 months. The two drillships are now expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, respectively.

The fleet status report also revealed that the GSF Monarch and Transocean Spitsbergen are idle, while GSF C.R. Luigs rig has gone from idle to stacked.

Transocean added that Spitsbergen’s well program concluded 45 days early due to efficient performance of the rig, although the contract provides for a payment to the company in the event of an early termination.

Finally, Transocean said it has classified the GSF Celtic Sea and the Transocean Amirante as held for sale. Meanwhile, the Amirante will be recycled, the Celtic Sea will either be sold for use in a non-drilling capacity or recycled. To date, excluding the Celtic Sea, Transocean has indicated its intent to scrap a total of 20 floaters.

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