Driller Transocean said yesterday two of it rigs had found work off Australia’s coast at higher rates than before.
Transocean, the world’s largest offshore rig fleet owner, said its Deepwater Millennium drillship will move from Mozambique to Australia and start work in February at a rate of $605,000 per day for two years, up from the $545,000 it now earns.
ConocoPhillips has also extended for two months a contract for a Transocean midwater rig off Australia at a $440,000 dayrate, up from $293,000.
Transocean had previously announced that the Jack Bates deepwater rig off Australia will start earning a $525,000 dayrate for three months from an unidentified company starting in July, up from the $380,000 now being paid by Santos.
Speaking to Reuters last week, Transocean had talked of slowness in the deepwater market, but a vice president at rival Noble told a City conference this week that Noble still sees the deepwater market as “very strong” and cited 52 deepwater discoveries in 2012 as a sign of the need for more work.
He added that fewer than half of those discoveries were in the “Golden Triangle” of West Africa, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, reinforcing the importance of emerging opportunities on the other side of Africa, as well as Australia and Southeast Asia.
Recommended for you
