Valaris Reactivating A Second Drillship

Offshore drilling contractor Valaris will reactivate another drillship after being awarded a two-year contract offshore Angola.

The contract was awarded by Esso Exploration Angola, an affiliate of ExxonMobil, for use of the drillship Valaris DS-9. Valaris will reactivate the drillship, which is currently in preservation status in the Canary Islands, before mobilizing it to Angola ahead of the anticipated contract commencement in June 2022.

Last week, Valaris said it would also reactivate the Valaris DS-4, which has been preservation stacked in the UK since December 2020 (although it was initially laid up in Spain in April 2020) after being awarded a contract with Petrobras offshore Brazil. The drillship will transit to the Canary Islands where it will be reactivated and then mobilized to Brazil ahead the commencement of work early in the second quarter 2022.

Valaris Limited (NYSE: VAL) in April completed a financial restructuring and emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy that successfully eliminated $7.1 billion of debt and raised $520 million in fresh capital. The company emerged with the largest fleet of modern, high-specification assets in the offshore drilling industry, comprising 11 drillships, five semi-submersibles and 44 jack-ups.

The company’s latest fleet status report, issued in August, shows three drillships still stacked, not including the DS-4 and DS-9.

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