Singapore's Seatrium will complete construction of four offshore drilling rigs for Rigco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel, under an agreement announced on Monday, October 26. The estimated total contract value is over SG$500 million ($391 million).
The work falls under the master services agreement already in place between the two companies. It will be funded from cash retained in Rigco, which owns the four units.
The seventh-generation drillship Can Do is expected to be delivered to Rigco in 2027, followed by the harsh-environment jack-up Jasper in 2028.
Construction plans for the mid-water semi-submersibles Nordic Winter and Nordic Spring are still being assessed. Seatrium said both are designed for the harshest environments of Northwest Europe.
The companies said completion would position the rigs for charters and support their monetisation through the Keppel Offshore Fund. Keppel launched the fund in July as part of a programme worth about SG$3.7 billion to monetise up to 10 legacy rigs, with Apollo as limited partner.
Under that programme, Keppel intended to complete these four rigs and potentially divest them to the fund from 2027 to 2028. Keppel put the potential aggregate cash proceeds at about SG$1.3 billion.
"The demand for deepwater and harsh environment rigs is expected to increase over the next several years, providing conducive conditions for new, long-term charters of premium rigs," said Cindy Lim, Keppel's CEO of Infrastructure and a non-executive director of Rigco.
Rigco also has six jack-ups that have been delivered and leased to customers since 2022. Keppel took full ownership of the legacy rig-holding company in 2024.
