Noble cold stacks two floaters, retires jackup

April 10, 2020
Noble Corp. plc has issued an update on its offshore drilling rig fleet.

Offshore staff

LONDON – Noble Corp. plc has issued an update on its offshore drilling rig fleet.

The drilling contractor has cold stacked the drillship Noble Bully II and the semisubmersible Noble Paul Romano.

As announced in February 2020, the drillships Noble Tom Madden, Noble Don Taylor, and Noble Bob Douglas were added to the commercial enabling agreement (CEA) with ExxonMobil for drilling services in the Guyana-Suriname basin.

Under the CEA, the Noble Tom Madden received a three-year award offshore Guyana that is expected to run from mid-December 2020 to mid-December 2023. Effective April 2, the drillship is on standby for a period of up to 90 days. The day rate is reduced to 50% of the operating day rate through the standby period, which will not count against the contract term. According to Noble, the contract term awarded under the CEA allows for the repricing of day rates in March and September.

A one-year contract for Exxon offshore Guyana has transferred from the Noble Sam Croft to the Noble Don Taylor. It is expected to start in mid-November 2020 at a mutually agreed day rate.

Under the CEA, the Noble Bob Douglas received a six-month award that is expected to start in late March 2021.

Offshore Vietnam an unnamed operator has contracted the semisubmersible Noble Clyde Boudreaux. The contract is expected to run from early June 2020 to late July 2020.

Qatar Gas has extended the contract for the jackup Noble Mick O’Brien from late March 2020 to late August 2020.

The jackup Noble Regina Allen’s contract with BHP offshore Trinidad and Tobago is now expected to run from October 2020 to May 2021. It includes three one-well options.

The jackup Noble Lloyd Noble is on standby effective March 15 for an estimated period of 30 days.  The day rate is reduced to 97% of operating day rate through the standby period.

The jackup Noble Tom Prosser is expected to be on standby effective mid-April for a period of up to 365 days. The day rate will be reduced to $47,000-$50,000 through the standby period.

RockRose Energy has informed that the contract for the jackup Noble Houston Colbert in the UK North Sea could end as early as mid-April.

Noble has warm stacked the jackups Noble Sam Hartley, Noble Sam Turner, and Noble Hans Deul.

The Noble Sam Hartley completed a contract with Total in the UK North Sea on April 7. The Noble Sam Turner completed a contract with Total offshore Denmark on March 25. The Noble Hans Deul completed a contract with Spirit Energy in the UK North Sea on March 15.

Saudi Aramco has requested a reduction to the operating day rates for the jackups Noble Scott Marks, Noble Roger Lewis, Noble Joe Knight, Noble Johnny Whitstine. The company said the requests are under review.

In addition, the contract with the Noble Johnny Whitstine required equipment upgrade in 1Q 2020 that was completed in 17 days compared to the expected 30 days.

Finally, the jackup Noble Joe Beall completed a contract with Aramco on Feb. 20. The rig will be retired.

04/09/2020