Noble books more than $1 billion of work for nine rigs

Noble Corp. has secured new contracts for nine offshore rigs, with a combined value of about $1.3 billion.

President and CEO Robert W. Eifler said the awards reflect strong demand for deepwater drilling going forward.

“Additionally, the redeployment of four currently idle deepwater rigs should drive a meaningful utilization improvement across our fleet, with 92% of our 24 marketed floaters now contracted compared to 75% in our prior fleet status report," he said.

During second-quarter 2027, the semisub Noble GreatWhite (formerly Ocean GreatWhite) will start its first-ever program offshore Norway under a three-year, $473-million contract from Aker BP.

Ahead of the campaign, Noble expects to spend about $160 million on reactivation and contract preparation measures activities.

Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) has taken the Noble Gerry de Souza drillship on a two-year drilling contract, extendable by up to three years. Operations should begin in mid-year subject to regulatory approvals.

The drillship, to be operated by PIDWAL (Noble’s Nigerian joint venture with Derotech) will undergo an upgrade for managed pressure drilling ahead of the campaign.

Offshore Guyana, ExxonMobil has confirmed two additional rig years under an existing arrangement with Noble, to be spread evenly across the drillships Noble Sam Croft, Noble Don Taylor, Noble Tom Madden and Noble Bob Douglas. Each will now work for the operator through February 2029.

An unnamed operator in South America has reserved the Noble Endeavor semisub for an 11-well program, due to start in late 2026, at rate of $300,000 per day, plus mobilization and demobilization fees. Revenues could rise further based on a performance incentive provision.

In addition, bp has contracted the Noble Developer semisub for three wells offshore Trinidad over an estimated 240-day period, set to start early next year, at $375,000/d, with options for up to three further wells.

Elsewhere, the Noble BlackRhino drillship will perform a workover well for Beacon Offshore Energy in the US Gulf of Mexico with the 50-day operation expected to get underway in March. The contract could be extended to include an additional well with estimated duration of 100 days. 

Finally, an existing three-year contract for TotalEnergies offshore Suriname, previously assigned to Noble Developer, has been transferred to the Noble Discoverer semisub.