Noble Corp News

Esgian reports rig-related updates from Dolphin Drilling, Diamond Offshore, and Seadrill in its Week 9 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDespite Tullow Oil’s recent announcement that it would take a break from drilling offshore Ghana, Noble Corp. has stated that there has been no contract termination announcement and that its 12,000-ft drillship Noble Venturer is currently still contracted to Tullow into March 2025.Masirah Oil Ltd has signed a rig contract with…

A.P. Møller Holding A/S has acquired offshore vessel services firm Maersk Supply Service A/S from A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S, through the closing of the previously announced transaction.In connection with the closing of this acquisition, A.P. Moller Holding has elected a new CEO and Board of Directors for Maersk Supply Service A/S. Christian M. Ingerslev will take over the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position from Steen S. Karstensen, who has been at the helm of Maersk Supply Service since 2016.

A platform supply vessel, normally used to deliver goods to offshore oil and gas platforms, is undergoing preparations in the Danish Esbjerg port to carry CO2 containers for storage in the North Sea.Offshore vessel owner Blue Water and offshore energy industry services firm Semco Maritime are rebuilding and upgrading the vessel Aurora Storm to become part of the Danish carbon capture and storage project Greensand.Project Greensand is a group of 23 Danish and international companies…

Following the announcement of a proposed merger between offshore drillers Maersk Drilling and Noble Corporation on Wednesday, a Noble shareholder said it would vote against the deal.The combination is a primarily all-stock transaction where the shares of the combined company will be distributed equally between the current shareholders of Noble and Maersk Drilling.The transaction is planned to be implemented through an English incorporated holding company, which will make a voluntary tender exchange offer to the shareholders of Maersk Drilling. The tender exchange offer will allow Maersk Drilling’s shareholders to exchange each Maersk Drilling share for 1.6137 shares in the new holding company.The two drillers said that the proposed transaction completion was targeted to close in mid-2022…

Norwegian investment company Standard Drilling said Tuesday it had sold its 33.3% ownership in the VLCC Gustavia S, following the updated company strategy. Standard Drilling, which in 2013 sold off its offshore drilling rigs, only to return as offshore vessel owner in 2016, in January 2020 entered the tanker market by acquiring a 33.3% ownership in the newly built Gustavia S VLCC.Now, the company has sold its stake in the 300 000 TDW ECO Design Crude Oil Tanker built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co and fitted with scrubber technology delivered by Wärtsila. The transaction values the vessel at USD 93 million, where Standard…

U.S. oil offshore losses remained at 76% on Thursday after Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf of Mexico, according to government data, which prolonged outages and caused the first oil cargo shipment cancellations to buyers in Asia.Production should be disrupted for several more days amid lasting damages to transfer stations and offshore facilities used by different companies, analysts said, with impact to oil prices."It seems to be at least more than a week away until most of the shut-in Gulf of Mexico production is restored…

Insurers are bracing for a hit of about $1 billion from physical damage to offshore rigs and structures from Hurricane Ida, according to preliminary estimates from U.S. property data and analytics company CoreLogic.The estimate did not include losses from production disruption and could be revised over time, a spokesperson for CoreLogic said.The volume of oil shut in by the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico rose to 1.7 million barrels per day of offshore output, up 240,000 barrels from Wednesday…

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corporation has sent a force majeure notice to its client Shell over the Noble Globetrotter II drillship contract after the rig was damaged earlier this week in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in severe weather during Hurricane Ida. The 2013-built ultra-deepwater drillship has a contract with Shell lasting until early September 2023 at a flexible day rate of at least $275,000.U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that the drillship, located 80 nautical miles south, southeast of Grand Isle, La., in the Gulf of Mexico, had sustained damage and that a plan was being developed to bring the vessel into port for repairs.Around 140 crew members were on board when the storm hit, Reuters reported earlier this week, citing USCG petty officer Carlos Galarza said.Noble Corp.

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating damage to a Noble Corp drillship hit by Hurricane Ida while operating in the Gulf of Mexico, a spokesperson said on Thursday.Nine crew members suffered minor injuries when the storm hit on Sunday, Noble said. Workers were treated onboard and four were taken to shore for evaluation, Noble's vice-president for Investor Relations Craig Muirhead said in a statement.The U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it is responding to a drillship that reportedly sustained damage as Hurricane Ida ripped through the Gulf of Mexico and into Louisiana as a Category 4 storm.The agency said it was notified during the storm that the ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Globetrotter II had been damaged, and that it had been in touch with both the vessel's master and owner Noble Corporation since Sunday to gauge the extent of any damage and to ensure readiness of onboard lifesaving equipment.The Liberian-flagged drillship and its 100-plus crew are currently located 80 nautical miles south, southeast of Grand Isle, La. The vessel's U.S. licensed master has maintained that the drillship was not in distress and is not actively taking on water, according to the Coast Guard.

Offshore drilling rig contractors Transocean Ltd and Dolphin Drilling have made a new offer to buy the assets of stricken rival Seadrill Ltd, Dolphin's chief executive said on Friday.Oslo-listed Seadrill, founded by Norwegian-born tycoon John Fredriksen, is seeking to emerge from U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings under an alternative financial plan filed in court last month."I can confirm that Dolphin and Transocean submitted an updated bid yesterday," Dolphin Chief Executive Bjoernar Iversen told Reuters.Seadrill's Oslo-listed shares traded 5.5% up by 1425 GMT…

Noble Corp and a consortium that includes Transocean Ltd and Dolphin Drilling are competing to acquire the assets of Seadrill Ltd, the bankrupt offshore oil driller controlled by Norwegian-born tycoon John Fredriksen, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.Seadrill is trying to emerge from its second U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy in four years: like many in the industry, it expanded its drilling rigs too aggressively in the mid-2010s to withstand a subsequent plunge in energy prices and rig hire rates.

Offshore oil and gas driller Noble Corp said on Friday it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure debt, following a historic fall in energy prices.The company said it would swap all its bond debt, which accounts for more than $3.4 billion of its total debt, with equity in the restructured company.Companies that operate offshore drilling rigs for major oil producers are facing a second wave of bankruptcies in four years, amid a historic drop in energy prices that will likely leave surviving drillers more closely tied to big oil firms.Noble expects to emerge with a new $675 million secured revolving credit facility…

Danish offshore drilling contractor Maersk Drilling is set to mothball several offshore drilling rigs, and as a consequence, reduce the number of offshore workers, citing low oil prices and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic as the reason."The COVID-19 pandemic and the lower oil price environment are impacting offshore drilling activity. Some tenders and projects are being delayed or canceled which adversely affects commercial prospects," Maersk Drilling said Friday.As previously reported, Tullow Oil in March sent an early termination notice for the Maersk Venturer drillship in Ghana.

Offshore rig firm Borr Drilling, controlled by Norwegian investor Tor Olav Troeim, is proposing to buy its rival Paragon Offshore for $232.5 million in a push to consolidate the fragmented rig market, it said on Thursday. A plunge in oil prices in 2014 forced oil firms to cut back on offshore exploration, reducing demand for drilling rigs at a time when new rigs ordered during the boom years were entering the market, pushing rates down to, or below, operating costs. Borr said it was likely to scrap 21 older jack-up rigs…

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp Plc's fourth-quarter loss narrowed from a year earlier, when it recorded impairment charges of $1.44 billion.   Net loss attributable to Noble narrowed to $24.68 million, or 10 cents per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $1.3 billion, or $5.36 a share, a year earlier, the company said on Wednesday.   Revenue fell 19.6 percent to $329.59 million. (Reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

A ship built by the CIA for a secret Cold War mission in 1974 to raise a sunken Soviet sub is heading to the scrap yard, a victim of the slide in oil prices. Christened the Hughes Glomar Explorer, after billionaire Howard Hughes was brought in on the CIA's deception, the 619-foot vessel eventually became part of the fleet of ships used by Swiss company Transocean to drill for oil. But the oil price rout means the former spy ship now called GSF Explorer is just one of 40 such offshore drilling rigs that have been consigned to scrap since last year.

Not so long ago, advanced drillships costing more than half a billion dollars each and capable of operating in ever-deeper waters practically guaranteed big profits for oil-rig operators. Now, with oil prices down by half since June, many have become a burden on their owners as drilling activity slows. Drillship operators face a more brutal hit to margins than they did after the oil-price crash of 2008 because of the huge cost of maintaining the more than $10 billion worth of state-of-the-art vessels that have been idled at sea, analysts say. Noble Corp Plc, Ensco Plc and Transocean Ltd are among companies that have invested in advanced rigs which, unlike older jack-up rigs that attach to the ocean floor, rely on dynamic positioning systems using thrusters to keep them in position.

Rig contractor Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc said it expected a significant number of ultra-deepwater rigs to be idled across the industry by year-end as oil producers' capital budget is likely to be lowered by a fifth this year. The company also said it would not pay a special dividend as it had been doing since 2006 to save cash to take advantage of opportunities in a distressed market. "...This action saves the company about $415 million over the next year, potentially equivalent to the cost of an ultra-deepwater asset," Evercore ISI analyst James West wrote in a note.

Two executives from offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp have agreed to settle civil claims they participated in a bribery scheme to obtain permits for oil rigs in Nigeria, days before the case was set to go to trial. Jury selection had been scheduled for next Monday in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Mark Jackson, Noble's former chief executive officer, and James Ruehlen, director of the oil and gas services company's Nigerian subsidiary. The two men were sued under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bans U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials. A federal judge in Houston called off all trial deadlines on Tuesday pending a final settlement. The terms, which must be approved by a judge, were not disclosed in court papers.

Noble Corp., a leading offshore driller, reported first-quarter net income on Wednesday of $0.99 a share, higher than consensus forecasts, as new rigs helped lift revenues. ThomsonReuters I/B/E/S had forecast earnings of 70 cents a share or 82 cents a share excluding special items. Noble, whose fleet of 77 drilling units provides services oil and gas companies globally, said drilling revenues rose to $1.2 billion in the latest quarter from $928,737 a year earlier as several new rigs became operational and fleet operating days improved. (Reporting By Terry Wade)

Offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry, Noble Corp., reports that (excluding a sale transaction mentioned below, settlement and asset impairment charge), third quarter 2013 earnings were $219 million, or $0.85 per diluted share. The results compared to $177 million, or $0.69 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2013 and $115 million, or $0.45 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2012. Results for the quarter included the sale of the jackup rig Noble Lewis Dugger…

Noble Corporation's Board of Directors has approved changing the place of incorporation of the publicly traded parent of the Noble group of companies from Switzerland to the United Kingdom. The Company's shareholders will be asked to vote to approve the proposed change. If approved by shareholders, Noble expects the change of the place of incorporation to be effective as soon as practicable following the merger of Noble Corporation, the current Swiss parent company, into a newly formed company incorporated under English law.