London-headquartered offshore driller Noble Corporation has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil for drilling services in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.
The agreement defines terms for the continuation of drilling services using Noble drillships in the region, including Noble Bob Douglas, Noble Tom Madden and Noble Don Taylor which are currently on drilling assignments for ExxonMobil offshore Guyana. Noble says that other drilling rigs may be also added to the agreement.
Dayrates earned by each rig will be updated at least twice per year to the prevailing market rate, subject to a scale-based discount and performance bonus.
Under the new agreement, ExxonMobil has awarded 3.5 years worth of contracts, contracting Noble Tom Madden for three years and Noble Bob Douglas for six months.
Julie Robertson, chairman, president and CEO of Noble Corporation, commented: “The Guyana-Suriname basin stands as one of the world’s premier offshore exploration and development opportunities. Since establishing an operating presence offshore Guyana in March 2018 with the Noble Bob Douglas, we have continued to expand our footprint in the region.
“The commercial enabling agreement with ExxonMobil takes our regional position a step further, as we benefit from multi-year contract visibility and utilization allocated across three of our premium drillships. This attractive commercial model secures current market pricing dynamics on six-month intervals and important operational economies of scale, and, importantly, the agreement can cover additional Noble drilling rigs.”
