Esgian Week 31 Report: Busy Week for Borr Drilling, Valaris, Transocean and Noble

Esgian provides an update on what has been a busy week in the offshore drilling market in its Week 31 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.

Report Summary

Contracts

Borr Drilling has confirmed new contracts for several of its 400-ft jackups, including work for the Arabia I in Brazil, Gunnlod in Malaysia, and Norve in Gabon. Borr stated that these new commitments cover a total 1,779 days and $332 million in contract revenue, including mobilisation and demobilisation.

North Oil Company has exercised a one-year priced option for Valaris 400-ft jackup Valaris 110 offshore Qatar.

Valaris 400-ft jackup Valaris 249 has secured further work offshore Trinidad in the form of a new eight-well contract with Shell to begin in the first half of 2026.

Valaris 350-ft jackup Valaris 144 has secured more work offshore Angola with a new one-well contract to begin around February 2025, before a 13-well contract with the same operator that was fixed in May 2024.

In late March and early April 2024, drilling contractors began receiving notices of contract suspensions for jackups from Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Saudi Aramco.

Valaris has secured new work for its jackup rigs in both the UK and Dutch sectors of the North Sea. Valaris has secured a 26-well plug and abandonment contract in the UK North Sea for the 225-ft jackup Valaris 92.

Transocean's 12,000-ft drillship, Deepwater Invictus, has secured a new long-term contract with bp in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Noble 492-ft jackup Noble Innovator has secured additional work with bp in the UK North Sea with bp’s exercise of priced options for around eight months of work at a dayrate of $155,000.

TotalEnergies has exercised two priced options for Noble 400-ft jackup Noble Regina Allen offshore Argentina at a dayrate of $150,000 for an estimated duration of 60 days.

Transocean stated that it has secured a letter of intent for one of its drillships in the US GOM with near term availability, and also expects to add additional wells to another rig under contract in the region.

Drilling Activity and Discoveries

With the recent extension of its contract with Borr Drilling 400-ft jackup Norve offshore Gabon, BW Energy expect to use the rig to drill the Bourdon prospect.

Hess anticipates results from an exploration well at Vancouver prospect in the US GoM during the third quarter of the year.

PT Pertamina Hulu Kalimantan Timur (PHKT) said Thursday it had recently successfully drilled two development wells at the Sejadi Field in the Southern Operation Area (DOBS), offshore Indonesia.

Inpex Browse E&P, the Australian subsidiary of the Japanese energy giant Inpex, has started drilling the West Peron 1 well in the Bonaparte Basin, offshore Australia.

Demand

The Australian government will finalise new offshore exploration permits for gas supply to support the local demand.

The UK government has announced that it will increase the rate of the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) to 38% on 1 November 2024, up from the current rate of 35%.

Oil major bp has taken a final investment decision (FID) on the Kaskida project in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Hartshead is still waiting on certainty around the UK’s fiscal policy, expected in October 2024, to take the Final Investment Decision (FID) on its Anning and Somerville project in the UK North Sea.

Mobilisation/Rig Moves

Transocean's 6th gen 12,000-ft drillship Petrobras 10000 has arrived in the Angra dos Reis port for its scheduled SPS maintenance.

Ventura Offshore’s 6th generation 10,000-ft semisubmersible SSV Catarina has arrived off the coast of Balikpapan, in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Island Drilling 4,000-ft semisubmersible Island Innovator has left the yard in the Canary Islands and is now en route to Mauritania.

Noble 12,000-ft drillship Noble Voyager has finished work offshore Suriname for Petronas and is now in Curacao, where it will undergo some SPS work for around two months and then be available for new contracts.

Valaris 400-ft jackup Valaris 249 has suffered leg damage while working offshore Trinidad & Tobago and is expected to be out of service for several weeks while it undergoes repairs.

Rig Sales

Shelf Drilling has agreed to sell its 375-ft jackup Baltic to a Southeast Asian buyer for $60 million. The buyer, understood to be Malaysia-based T7 Global, will use the rig on a multi-year plug and abandonment (P&A) programme with Petronas Carigali in Malaysia.

Other News

After reviewing options, TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy have decided to withdraw from Block 11B/12B off South Africa, in which they hold a 45% and 25% interest, respectively.

A review by KWC, an independent valuation expert, has concluded that the fair market value of Northern Ocean Ltd. (NOL) likely exceeds the offer price made by John Fredriksen’s Hemen Holding for the remaining shares in the company.

Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS) has launched the Sarawak Bid Round (SBR) 2024 focused on Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS).

The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) has carried out an audit of COSL Drilling Europe and its management of working environment and health and hygiene conditions on the 4,921-ft semisubmersible COSLProspector, as part of the regulator's processing of COSL's application for an Acknowledgment of Compliance (AoC).

Following Grupo Carso’s recent contract to develop the Lakach natural gas field, Mexican state oil company Pemex stated that Grupo Carso will invest $1.884 billion in the project.

NEO Energy and its joint venture partners in the Greater Buchan Area (GBA) will be considering the impact of changes to the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) on the Buchan Horst project development in the North Sea.

Viaro Energy’s main operating subsidiary, RockRose Energy, has signed an agreement with Shell U.K. Limited and Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, to acquire a full ownership interest in the Shell-operated UK Southern North Sea assets.

Offshore drilling contractor Valaris reported net income of $151 million for the second quarter of 2024, up from $26 million in the first quarter.

Noble Corporation reported net income of $195 million for the second quarter of 2024, up from $95 million in the first quarter of the year, while the company’s revenues for the second quarter were $693 million, up from $637 million in the previous quarter.

Transocean Ltd.reported a net loss attributable to controlling interest of $123 million for the second quarter of 2024.

Valaris is looking to the fourth quarter of 2024 for new opportunities for its floating rigs, the 8,500-ft Valaris DPS-5 and the 12,000-ft Valaris DS-10, expecting the units to remain idle for much of the remaining third quarter of the year.

Transocean does not expect its two currently available floating rigs, the 10,000-ft Development Driller III and the 12,000-ft Discoverer Inspiration to work in 2024.

Noble will continue to focus on pursuing well intervention work for its 6th generation 10,000-ft drillships Noble Globetrotter I and Noble Globetrotter II.