Transocean Ltd. plans to scrap four of its offshore drilling rigs and stack four others, according to its latest fleet status update.
The Deepwater Expedition, Transocean Legend, Transocean Rather, and GSF Arctic III will be scrapped and classified as held for sale. The Transocean Legend was recently used by ConocoPhillips to drill its Pharos-1 gas discovery well in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia (OGJ Online, July 17, 2014).
Transocean has now reported plans to scrap a total of 16 floaters.
Ultradeepwater floaters Discoverer Spirit, GSF Jack Ryan, Deepwater Discovery, and Deepwater Pathfinder are stacked. All were previously idle.
The company expects its first-quarter results to include an estimated noncash charge of $300-325 million net of taxes.
Statoil ASA at yearend 2014 suspended the Transocean Spitsbergen and Songa Trym drilling rigs because of overcapacity in its rig portfolio (OGJ Online, Nov. 6, 2014). At the time, the company was seeking alternative assignments for the rigs for 2015.
Total value of new rig contracts since Transocean’s last monthly report is $9 million. The Sedco Express was given a one-well contract extension offshore Nigeria at a dayrate of $300,000 (OGJ Online, Dec. 4, 2014).
