Oslo-listed Prospector Offshore Drilling has confirmed a contract with Total covering the use of its first jack-up rig, Prospector I, in the North Sea.
The contract has an initial term of 690 days and Total has the right to extend the initial contract period for additional well testing and an option to drill two additional wells.
According to Prospector, which was set up in May 2010 and listed in February last year, if Total exercises its right to do additional well testing on the initial wells and its option to drill the two optional wells, the contract term could be extended up to one to two years.
The total aggregate revenue for the initial 690-day contract is around $135million.
The drilling programme is expected to begin during Q2 next year following delivery of Prospector 1 from the Dalian yard in China . . . currently scheduled to take place in January.
Robert W. Rose, president and CEO at Prospector, said, “This execution of this contract with Total is the next step in the development of the company.
“We look forward to the delivery of the Prospector 1 and to providing Total with advanced and safe operations. The company is in ongoing discussions regarding opportunities for our other five rigs that are under construction”.
Meanwhile, Prospector has reached an agreement with the Dalian yard (DSIC Offshore) to extend the expiry dates on its three rig construction option agreements that would otherwise have expired on June 30.
The first of these rig construction option agreements, entered into on June 19, 2010, will now expire on December 31.
The second and third rig construction options entered into on April 2, 2011, will also now expire on December 2012.
Further, the company has negotiated changes to an agreement with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding to extend the expiry dates on two of its rig construction option agreements with SWS that were previously due to expire on June 30. All have been pushed back to the end of December too.
Prospector bills itself as a high specification jack-up drilling contractor and currently has contracts in
place for the design, construction and delivery of six F&G JU2000E high specification, harsh environment (HS/HE) jack-up drilling rigs.
The company has option agreements for six additional rigs of the same design.
