Noble Corporation has secured new contracts for its drilling units, offshore driller’s president and CEO Robert W. Eifler revealed in Q2 2021 financial update.
The company, which retired two of its stacked drillships during the second quarter, has already signed three contracts for legacy Pacific Drilling rigs.
In addition to the earlier reported one-well contract with Houston-based EnVen, the 2013-built drillship Pacific Khamsin has secured a new contract with Murphy Oil in the US Gulf of Mexico for an estimated 83 days to begin in November 2021. Murphy is reportedly paying $230,000 per day.
The 2011-built drillship Pacific Santa Ana has been awarded a contract with Apache in Suriname for one firm well plus two option wells commencing in early February 2022. Analysts report Apache has also signed up for $230,000 day rate.
Moreover, Noble sealed a deal with Santos for its 2014-built jackup Noble Tom Prosser for three firm wells with an estimated duration of 160 days, which is scheduled to begin in direct continuation of its current contract and is subject to final project sanctioning.
Noble’s Eifler, stated: “Throughout the first part of 2021 we have seen a building pipeline of floater tender opportunities, and we are pleased to have signed new contracts on some of the high specification drillships we recently acquired with the Pacific Drilling transaction and are targeting a number of new opportunities for additional work for those rigs.
“The integration of Pacific Drilling’s fleet into Noble’s operations is nearly complete and we are on track to deliver the identified synergies by the end of the third quarter this year.”
As of June 30, 2021, Noble’s estimated revenue backlog totaled approximately $1.5bn, consisting of around $1.2bn associated with the floating rig fleet and $358m with the jackup fleet.
