By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 18 -- Reliance Industries Ltd. awarded Transocean Inc. a 2-year, $248 million contract for the C. Kirk Rhein Jr. semisubmersible for drilling off India.
The contract is expected to commence in December following completion of a reactivation program, which has begun. The reactivation program does not involve an upgrade of the rig's capabilities.
The C. Kirk Rhein Jr., which entered active service in 1976 and was upgraded to its current specifications in 1997, has been idle in the US Gulf of Mexico since March 2002. Transocean estimates a cost of $38 million to reactivate and mobilize the rig.
