27 July 2013 – Ocean Rig UDW Inc. reported Tuesday it has received a letter of award from a major oil company for the Drillship, Ocean Rig Skyros, which is currently under construction.
The letter of award is for a six-year contract with a backlog valued at approximately $1.3 billion for drilling offshore West Africa. The letter of award is subject to the completion of definitive documentation and receipt of regulatory approvals, Nicosia, Cyprus-based Ocean Rig said in a July 23 press release.
The six-year contract is expected to begin immediately following a contract with Total S.A. subsidiary Total E&P Angola. Ocean Rig also reported Tuesday that it had signed a definitive agreement with Total for the rig. Total will use the Ocean Rig Skyros for a five-well or minimum 275-day drilling program offshore West Africa; the contract will begin after the drillship’s delivery from Samsung Shipyard in South Korea in October 2013.
The Total contract will begin in late December 2013 and run through early October 2014 at a day rate in the low $580,000s, according to Rigzone’s RigLogix database. Ocean Rig estimates the Total contract to have an estimated backlog of around $190 million.
Ocean Rig said the letter of award brings its total contracted backlog to approximately $6.1 billion. The company owns and operators 10 ultra-deepwater units, including two semisubmersibles and eight drillships. Three of these rigs are scheduled for delivery this year and one for delivery in 2015, said Ocean Rig.
*Karen Boman, Rigzone
