Transocean has announced that it has been awarded 10-year contracts for four dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater drillship new builds by Royal Dutch Shell.
Shipyard delivery for the first drillship is scheduled for mid-2015. The remaining three drillships are expected to be delivered from the shipyard at approximately six-month intervals thereafter.
After customer acceptance, the contracts are expected to commence in 2015 and 2016, contributing an estimated revenue backlog of USD7.6 billion, excluding mobilisation. The aggregate capital investment for the four newbuild rigs is an estimated USD3.0 billion, excluding capitalised interest.
All four drillships have advanced capabilities: each is designed to operate in water depths of up to 3,650 metres and drill wells to 12,000 metres.
Featuring state-of-the-art equipment, including Transocean's patented dual-activity drilling technology, the new build drillships will possess "industry-leading" hoisting capacity. The drillships will also have a variable deckload capacity of 23,000 tonnes and feature enhanced well completion capabilities.
In addition, each newbuild rig will be outfitted with two 15,000psi blowout preventers (BOPs), which are expected to reduce customer non-productive time between wells.
The four new build drillships will be able to accommodate a future upgrade to a 20,000psi BOP, when it becomes available. The rigs will also feature diesel engines configured to comply with anticipated Tier III International Maritime Organization (IMO) emissions standards.
"These contracts add 40 years of rig work to our revenue backlog, expand and upgrade our ultra-deepwater fleet, improve our fleet mix and provide an opportunity to expand our relationship with an important customer with which we have 40 years of experience in advancing the state of the art in offshore drilling technology," said Steven L. Newman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Transocean.
"We look forward to providing Shell with incremental value through the addition of these seventh-generation, ultra-deepwater drillships."
Peter Sharpe, Shell's Executive Vice President, Wells, said, "Shell continues to develop its deepwater operations and modernize its contracted rig fleet at fair market rates. These state-of-the-art deepwater rigs, on which we are collaborating with Transocean to design, will comply with the highest industry standards for safety, operations and environmental protection for drilling deepwater wells."
The new build rigs will be constructed at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering facility at Okpo, Korea, where Transocean's five Enhanced Enterprise-Class rigs were built and where the company currently has two other ultra-deepwater drillships under construction.
Construction on the first drillship is expected to commence during the fourth quarter of 2013.
Source: Asiasis
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