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Noble dispatches two young drillships for demo

More youthful, highly expensive drillships have been sent for scrap.

Noble Corporation has decided to cut short the lives of the 2010-built Pacific Bora and the 2011-built Pacific Mistral, two drillships among seven it picked up last month with the all-stock acquisition of Pacific Drilling.

Many drillships have met premature ends recently as offshore firms struggle with their balance sheets. In January Splash reported on Vantage Drilling’s decision to retire the the 2012-built Titanium Explorer while last July Valaris sent three drillships, all less than ten-years-old, to the scrapyard.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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