Offshore driller Valaris has secured a long-term contract from Petrobras for its drillship Valaris DS-4 to work on the upcoming Buzios program offshore Brazil.
The New York-listed firm has fixed the 2010-built floater for 1,064 days in a deal worth around $519m, including mobilisation fees and additional services.
The contract should start late in the fourth quarter of 2024, after the rig wraps up its current campaign with Petrobras in September 2024 and goes out of service for approximately 90 days to complete “customer-required capital upgrades”.
Commenting on the deal, Anton Dibowitz president and chief executive of Valaris said: “We have previously stated that we expect Valaris’ earnings and cash flow to increase meaningfully as rigs are recontracted at market rates. This contract award for Valaris DS-4 is a great example of how we are executing on the operating leverage inherent in our business, with the rig repricing from a day rate in the low $200,000s to an effective day rate in the high $400,000s.”
