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.