Jackups News

Esgian highlights that operators in Norway are preparing new wells for Odfjell Drilling, COSL and Saipem semisubs in its Week 41 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsShelf Drilling has secured new contracts for its 350-ft jackups Shelf Drilling Achiever and Adriatic I offshore Nigeria.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljødirektoratet) has received an application from Aker BP for permission under the Pollution Act to drill the delineation well 25/1-14 Omega Alfa in the North Sea…

Esgian provides an update on new contract awards for Greatship, Transocean, Noble and Stena Drilling in its Week 36 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsGreatship has secured a contract with Cairn for its 350-ft Greatdrill Chetna jackup drilling rig in India. The contract is firm for six months at a dayrate of approximately $90,000, starting in late November or early December 2024.Transocean has secured a binding letter of award from Reliance Industries for its 6th generation 12…

Esgian provides an update on new jack-up contracts in the North Sea and Nigeria in its Week 33 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsBorr Drilling 400-ft jackup Prospector 1 has secured a contract extension with ONE-Dyas for work offshore the UK and the Netherlands, scheduled to run from February to April 2025.Shelf Drilling 300-ft jackup Harvey H. Ward has received a notice of suspension from Saudi Aramco for up to one year.Shelf Drilling 350-ft jackup Shelf Drilling…

Esgian provides an update on the second round of jackup suspensions in Saudi Arabia in its Week 32 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsArabian Drilling has confirmed that Saudi Aramco has initiated discussions with the drilling contractor over the suspension of an additional leased offshore rig, following an initial round of contract suspensions that began earlier this year. Arabian Drilling has not stated which of its jackups is the target of the current suspension discussions.ADES does not expect new contract suspensions for its fleet by Saudi Aramco this year.

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 SummaryContractsBorr 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…

Esgian provides an update on new rig deals in its Week 30 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsValaris has been awarded a multi-year contract with Equinor Energy do Brasil, a subsidiary of Equinor, for the 12,000-ft drillship Valaris DS-17. The contract relates to work on Project Raia offshore Brazil.Noble Corporation has secured a one-well contract for 350-ft jackup Noble Resolve with Central European Petroleum (CEPetro) offshore Poland. The upcoming work will…

Esgian provides an update on drilling activity in its Week 26 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsVentura Offshore has been granted exclusive marketing rights from Hanwha Drilling LLC for the newbuild 12,000-ft 7th generation drillship, Tidal Action, for an ongoing tender process in Brazil.Transocean has announced a 365-day contract extension for the 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Asgard with an independent operator in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.Northern Ocean Ltd.-owned 7…

Esgian provides an update on exploration drilling in its Week 25 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryDrilling Activity and DiscoveriesOslo-listed BlueNord announced on Monday the start-up of drilling operations on the Harald East Middle Jurassic well (HEMJ) in the Danish North Sea.Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) encountered non-commercial hydrocarbons at the Orange #1 exploration well on Mississippi Canyon Block 216 in the US GOM and the well has been plugged and abandoned.

Esgian provides an update on Noble and Diamond Offshore’s announcement of merger plans in its Week 24 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsADES has completed the signing of a drilling contract for a jackup with Suez Oil Company (SUCO) in Egypt.Mergers & AcquisitionsNoble Corporation and Diamond Offshore Drilling have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Noble will acquire Diamond in a stock plus cash transaction. As part of the transaction, Diamond shareholders will receive 0.2316 shares of Noble…

Esgian provides an update on rig sales and the shrinking pool of vintage semisubs in its Week 22 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsNoble Corporation has secured a new well intervention contract with Harbour Energy in UK waters of the North Sea for the 350-ft jackup Noble Resilient.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe recently drilled offshore production well at the Kupe oil and gas field in New Zealand is underperforming despite a recent wireline well intervention.BW…

Esgian provides an update on new commitments confirmed for Odfjell Drilling and Borr Drilling rigs and new tender opportunities emerging in Africa in its Week 21 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsEquinor has exercised an option to extend the use of Odfjell Drilling’s 10,000-ft Deepsea Aberdeen for a batch of eight wells on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. With this, Odfjell Drilling’s owned fleet of four semisubs has a firm backlog until at least mid-2026.Borr Drilling has confirmed new work for its 400-ft jackup Prospector 1 in the UK and the Netherlands…

Esgian provides an update on Saudi suspensions in its Week 20 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsDrilling contractor Arabian Drilling confirmed that the suspension of three contracts for its jackups with Saudi Aramco have yet to be finalised but are expected to take effect towards the end of the third quarter of 2024. CEO Ghassan Mirdad stated that the company is actively exploring opportunities to redeploy these rigs with other clients. Arabian Drilling announced…

Esgian reports that new drilling contracts have been announced in the North Sea and West Africa in its Week 17 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsShelf Drilling (North Sea) has secured a letter of award with an unnamed operator, believed to be TotalEnergies, for the 400-ft jackup Shelf Drilling Fortress for a campaign in the North Sea.Noble 12,000-ft 7th generation drillship Noble Venturer has secured new contracts in West Africa with Trident Energy and Rhino Resources…

Esgian reports on the many rig movements that occurred last week in its Week 16 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsADES Holding Company has received a letter of award from an international oil company for a one-year firm drilling contract for a jackup offshore Qatar.TotalEnergies has exercised a three-well option for Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Skyros offshore Angola at a rate of $400,000, keeping the rig working into December 2025.After initially beginning a short-term job in the US GOM in January 2024…

Esgian reports on new contracts for Borr Drilling and Shelf Drilling (North Sea) jackups in its Week 15 Rig Analytics Market Roundup. Additionally, Energean has selected a drillship for its upcoming drilling campaign offshore Morocco. South America remains vital to the floating rig market, with ExxonMobil moving ahead on a sixth development on the prolific Stabroek block offshore Guyana and Petrobras reporting a new discovery in Brazil's Potiguar Basin.Report Outline:ContractsBorr Drilling has announced new contract commitments for three of its premium jackup rigs…

Esgian reports various drilling contractors disclosing details of discussions with Saudi Aramco regarding jackup contract suspensions in its Week 14 Rig Analytics Market Roundup. These contractors include Shelf Drilling, ADES, Borr Drilling, Arabian Drilling, COSL, and ARO Drilling.Meanwhile, Transocean, Noble, and COSL rigs have firmed up new work in the US Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, and the North Sea, respectively.Report overview:ContractsShelf Drilling has received a notice of suspension of operations on four jackup rigs from a customer in the Middle East.

Esgian reports that offshore drilling contractors secured additional backlog in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, and Brazil and operators confirmed new discoveries in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, and China in its Week 10 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsDiamond Offshore has executed a two-year contract extension with a subsidiary of bp in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for the 12,000-ft drillship Ocean BlackHornet.Shelf Drilling’s 250-ft jackup Rig 141 has secured a two-year…

Esgian's last roundup of the year for the Week 52 puts spotlight on new developments for Dolphin Drilling semisub, Seadrill drillships, as well as Shell’s plans for Australia and ONGC’s new tender for jackups in India.ContractsDolphin Drilling has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed operator for the 1,500-ft semisubmersible Borgland Dolphin to undertake a 500-day drilling campaign in the UK. The drilling campaign is planned to begin directly after the firm part of the contract period with EnQuest, which was announced in late November 2023.

It’s a big deal when a U.S. president visits an American shipyard, and these trips always send a message. When President Obama spoke at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in 2013, he warned of the consequences of sequestration. President Trump’s 2020 speech at Fincantieri Marinette Marine touted a $5.5 billion naval contract that gave a welcome boost to the Wisconsin shipyard and its supply chain partners. Most recently, President Biden traveled to Philadelphia’s Philly Shipyard…

The results of fortunes and failures are often described as a “perfect storm”. The COVID pandemic, domestic inflation, labor issues and current geopolitical events have brought that description to a peak. A promise of a “new normal” emerged post pandemic, with a vision of alternative energy, alternative fuels and alternative supply chain logistics to help toward solving some of the problems, heralding a world of change with reduced emissions, government support and the end of fossil fuels as we know them in energy and marine operations.With those promises came big movements in the U.S.

In our first article we highlighted some of the key contractual considerations facing shipowners looking to construct and charter offshore wind vessels. In this article we explore some of the considerations concerning the financing and bankability of offshore wind vessels. We have seen a diverse group of financiers interested in financing vessels in the offshore wind sector and, while the nature of the financing available will depend to a large extent on the employment of the vessel…

Offshore wind turbine makers have been working to build increasingly bigger turbines, and the likes of GE, Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, and MingYang have in the past two years or so unveiled designs for giant 14-16MW rated units.It has been said that larger turbines, while more expensive per unit, reduce the overall cost of large-scale offshore wind farm development due to their being more modern and efficient, as well as leading to fewer units being required for offshore wind projects…

Offshore drilling rig reactivations have begun as utilization and dayrates continue their rapid recovery, Esgian's Teresa Wilkie writes.We expected it to happen just not necessarily this soon. But now it’s official, several cold-stacked rigs are about to be reactivated for new jobs in the Golden Triangle, and Valaris is taking the lead. Just last week, the driller confirmed that it will reactivate 6th generation, ultra-deepwater drillship Valaris DS-4 for a minimum 580-day deal with Petrobras Brazil.