Norway’s Borr Drilling has sold 14 ageing jackup rigs en bloc to a non-drilling company, rigs it acquired as part of the acquisition of Paragon Offshore.
The rigs will be delivered to the new owner over the next 30 days and contribute up to $16m in profits to the company.
Borr Drilling says that 13 of the rigs will be demobilised as drilling rigs and targeted for mobile offshore production unit orientated work, while a single unit will be used for a specific life of field project.
Since concluding the Paragon transaction, Borr Drilling has actively tried to reduce the daily operating cost and capex linked to the acquired rigs. Since the beginning of the year Borr and Paragon have sold 26 rigs in total, all of which leave the actively marketed jackup fleet.
Svend Anton Maier, CEO of Borr Drilling, commented: “We have, over the last 17 months, been able to build a unique fleet of 24 high specification assets acquired at attractive prices funded by a strong combination of equity and attractive seller financing. We see clear signs that the tender activity in the market is increasing, to a large extent, driven by NOCs and major oil companies. With the solid operational platform built both organically and through the Paragon acquisition, we are very well positioned for what we see as the start of the next upturn cycle in the jack-up market.”
The sale will save Borr Drilling around $35m in annual stacking costs.
