New York-listed offshore drilling contractor Diamond Offshore has executed a two-year contract extension for one of its rigs with Occidental subsidiary, Anadarko Petroleum, in the US Gulf of Mexico.
The extension was awarded to the Ocean BlackHawk and will begin in November 2024 in direct continuation of the rig’s current contract. The deal is set to end in November 2026. The rig has been working for Occidental since November 2023.
This contract extension is worth around $350m of additional backlog, excluding any managed pressure drilling services, and replaces the one-year priced option that was agreed in May 2023. Anadarko will retain three one-year unpriced options.
“This extension is a testament to the safe performance of our crews and provides further visibility to our earnings and cash flow streams for 2025 and 2026. Combined with our previous awards, this brings our total contract backlog to approximately $2.1bn,” said Bernie Wolford, Jr., president and CEO.
Earlier this month, the Houston-based drilling contractor sealed a deal with the owner of West Dorado and West Draco to market the rigs in Brazil, Latin America, West Africa, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The company also agreed to market the Hanwha Ocean-built West Libra, now known as the Tidal Action, in the US Gulf of Mexico.
A day before the marketing deal, Diamond Offshore sold its 50-year-old semisub Ocean Monarch to Best Oasis for recycling. The value of the deal was $7.5m. The rig had been cold-stacked in Malaysia for about two years before the sale.
