Stone Energy Corporation and Ensco have reached an agreement to terminate a long term contract for deepwater semisubmersible rig Ensco 8503.
.As part of the agreement Ensco receive compensation totalling $20m, $5m of which was previously provided to Ensco pursuant to the drilling services contract. In addition, Stone has agreed to make a $5m deposit that can be applied as a credit toward certain future drilling services initiated in the Gulf of Mexico on or before March 31, 2017. If these funds are not used by such date, subject to certain exceptions, Stone Energy forfeits such $5m deposit.
Ensco also retains the exclusive right to perform offshore drilling services for Stone within a predefined range of operating day rates in the Gulf of Mexico through December 31, 2019.
The Ensco 8503 rig contract was signed at a day rate of $341,000 and was scheduled to expire in August 2017.
