Fourth Noble drillship heading to Guyana

ExxonMobil has awarded the drillship Noble Sam Croft a new six-month contract offshore Guyana, Noble Corporation revealed in its latest trading statement.

Operations are expected to start in 4Q 2020 after the rig finishes its current programme offshore Suriname.  This contract was awarded under the commercial enabling agreement established with ExxonMobil for Guyana earlier this year.

With this award, all four of Noble’s high-specification HHI drillships will now be contracted to ExxonMobil in Guyana.

In 2Q, the company’s 12 floating rigs achieved utilization of 53% compared to 58% in 1Q.

Excluding five cold-stacked units, utilisation in 2Q and 1Q was 92% and 100%, respectively.

The 8% decline in operating days was due largely to reduced days for the semi-submersible Noble Clyde Boudreaux, which completed its contract early in 2Q, the company said.

The drilling contractor’s 12 jack-up rigs experienced fewer operating days when compared to 1Q. A reduction in operating days on several rigs in the North Sea as well as reduced available days due to the retirement of the Noble Joe Beall were partially offset by increased operating days on the Noble Regina Allen.

ExxonMobil placed the Noble Tom Prosser on a special standby rate in mid-April and returned to full day rate in mid-July, and the Noble Scott Marks began a one-year contract suspension at zero day rate in early May 2020 with Saudi Aramco.

In addition, the company has agreed to an adjusted day rate on the Noble Roger Lewis of US$139,000 effective the 1^st April 2020 through to the 31^st December 2021, after which it returns to the original rate of US$159,000 for the remainder of the contract.

Under the same agreement with Aramco, the day rates for the Noble Johnny Whitstine and Noble Joe Knight will not be adjusted.

Utilisation for the jack-up fleet was 65% in the 2Q compared with 94% in 1Q, the company said.

As for the state of the offshore drilling market, Robert Eifler, president and CEO of Noble, said: “…. the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the OPEC+ supply disruptions has led us to push out further our expectations for a meaningful recovery in demand.

“Despite the very challenging backdrop, Noble has continued to outperform the market in utilisation. We are signing new contracts for our jack-ups in the North Sea and maintain very robust utilisation for our floaters in the Gulf of Mexico and Guyana/Suriname basin.”

Source: Offshore Magazine