French energy major TotalEnergies and offshore driller Vantage Drilling have signed a binding agreement to create a new joint venture that would acquire from Vantage the Tungsten Explorer drillship.
drillship.Under the terms of the agreement, TotalEnergies will pay $199m for a 75% interest in the JV owning the rig, with Vantage owning the remaining 25%. The JV will contract Vantage to operate the Tungsten Explorer for 10 years.
Built in 2013, the drillship is designed for deep offshore drilling. It is currently operating offshore Namibia on the Mangetti-1X well.
“TotalEnergies is pleased to enter into this agreement with Vantage to take shared ownership of a drillship, the Tungsten Explorer, which we already used in exploration and development activities in Namibia, Cyprus, and Congo,” said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.
“The proceeds from the sale of the drillship will completely deleverage our balance sheet while putting in place a meaningful, long-term revenue stream leveraging our strong management expertise,” Ihab Toma, CEO of Vantage Drilling, added.
