Vantage Drilling News

Esgian reports on the many rig movements that occurred last week in its Week 16 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsADES Holding Company has received a letter of award from an international oil company for a one-year firm drilling contract for a jackup offshore Qatar.TotalEnergies has exercised a three-well option for Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Skyros offshore Angola at a rate of $400,000, keeping the rig working into December 2025.After initially beginning a short-term job in the US GOM in January 2024…

Esgian reports various drilling contractors disclosing details of discussions with Saudi Aramco regarding jackup contract suspensions in its Week 14 Rig Analytics Market Roundup. These contractors include Shelf Drilling, ADES, Borr Drilling, Arabian Drilling, COSL, and ARO Drilling.Meanwhile, Transocean, Noble, and COSL rigs have firmed up new work in the US Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, and the North Sea, respectively.Report overview:ContractsShelf Drilling has received a notice of suspension of operations on four jackup rigs from a customer in the Middle East.

Esgian reports shifts in demand in its Week 13 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report overview:ContractsADES has received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from PTTEP Energy Development Company Limited for an 18-month jackup drilling contract in the Gulf of Thailand. Operations are expected to begin in the second half of 2024, with an unspecified jackup.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for an exploration well in…

Esgian reports that drilling contracts have been announced this week for operations in Brazil and the Philippines, and new discoveries have been confirmed in the UK and Namibia in its Week 11 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsCOSL Drilling has emerged as the winner for Petrobras' moored semisubmersible tender with the 4,600-ft Nanhai 8 (also known as Nan Hai Ba Hao).Noble has secured a high-dayrate drillship contract with Prime Energy in the Philippines.Drilling Activity and…

Esgian's last roundup of the year for the Week 52 puts spotlight on new developments for Dolphin Drilling semisub, Seadrill drillships, as well as Shell’s plans for Australia and ONGC’s new tender for jackups in India.ContractsDolphin Drilling has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed operator for the 1,500-ft semisubmersible Borgland Dolphin to undertake a 500-day drilling campaign in the UK. The drilling campaign is planned to begin directly after the firm part of the contract period with EnQuest, which was announced in late November 2023.

Billionaire John Fredriksen-owned offshore drilling company Northern Drilling said Tuesday it had canceled a drillship resale contract with the South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).In May 2018, Northern Drilling signed agreements with DSME to buy two newbuilding 7th generation DP3 and ultra-deepwater capable drillships DSME known as the West Aquila and the West Libra, for $296 million each with $90 million paid at contract signing and the remainder at delivery. However, Northern Ocean said  Tuesday it had canceled the contract for the West Aquila drillship due to delay of delivery as well as a repudiatory breach of contract.Northern Drilling…

Offshore drilling contractor Northern Drilling announced it has cancelled a resale contract for the 7th generation ultra deepwater drillship West Cobalt, which had been scheduled for delivery from South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in 2021.Northern Drilling, which notified DSME of the cancellation on Monday, said the deal was cancelled for "various reasons including repudiatory breach of contract by DSME".Northern Drilling has made advance payments totaling approximately $49.2 million under the contract, and will claim a refund of the installments paid, plus interests and damages, it said.West Cobalt…

Texas-based offshore drilling contractor Vantage Drilling International reported a net loss of  $52.2 million for the three months ended December 31, 2018 as compared to a net loss of $36.6 million for the three months ended December 31, 2017.For the year ended December 31, 2018, Vantage reported a net loss of $141.5 million or as compared to a net loss of $149.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.Vantage, a Cayman Islands exempted company, issued $350 million of new senior secured notes using proceeds to repay its first and second lien debt and to acquire the Soehanah jackup for $85.0, including transaction costs.Ihab Toma, CEO, Said: "We refinanced two tranches of debt thereby extending maturities to 2023.

UK-based Tower Resources has announced it has contracted US offshore driller Vantage Drilling International to provide drilling operations at the NJOM-3 well offshore Cameroon. The well is located in Tower’s 100%-owned Thali licence.The Topaz Driller is a Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 jack-up, which was recently mobilised to Cameroon by NewAge as operator for the Etinde license for two appraisal wells and is currently employed in Gabon, informed a press release from the upstream oil and gas company.As announced on 1 November 2018, the terms of the contract are confidential, however, the economics are consistent with Tower’s current drilling cost estimates…

Brazilian federal prosecutors on Thursday charged the former chief executive of U.S. oil services company Vantage Drilling with corruption and money laundering, accusing him of offering $31 million in bribes to public officials.Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the charges against former CEO Paul Bragg related to irregularities in a 2009 contract worth $1.8 billion to charter a drill ship to state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasiliero SA.Reuters was unable to locate Bragg or his representatives. Bragg was CEO of the Houston-based company from 2006 to 2016.

Vantage Drilling International announced that it has been notified that its drilling services contract for the Emerald Driller will be extended for two years, beginning in May 2018. Ihab Toma, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are very pleased that we will continue to work with one of our esteemed clients and keep our rigs working in this challenging environment. Vantage Drilling International, a Cayman Islands exempted company, is an offshore drilling contractor, with a fleet of three ultra-deepwater drillships, four premium jackup drilling rigs and one standard jack-up drilling rig. Vantage's primary business is to contract drilling units…

Vantage Drilling International, announced  that it has received a letter from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) acknowledging Vantage's full cooperation in the DOJ's investigation concerning possible violations by Vantage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and indicating that the DOJ has closed its investigation without any action. The investigation arose in 2015 from allegations of improper payments to former officials of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A (Petrobras) in connection with the contracting of the Titanium Explorer drillship to Petrobras. From the outset of the investigation, the Company has provided its full cooperation to the DOJ and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Brazilian prosecutors plan to file criminal charges stemming from the lease of an Ensco Plc offshore oil-drilling ship to Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras "in due course," they said. The plan to prosecute over the Ensco-Petrobras charter was mentioned in a Thursday statement presenting corruption charges stemming from the 2009 lease of another drillship, Vantage Drilling's Titanium Explorer Rig. In the Vantage case, prosecutors formally charged six people, including Petrobras' former international-unit chief Jorge Zelada. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, chartered the DS-5 in 2008, when it was owned by Pride International, a company London-based Ensco purchased in 2011.

ABB, a power and automation technology group, has secured an offshore marine industry contract covering electrical power and propulsion systems onboard a DP class 3 Drill Ship to be conferred with "Enhanced Reliability" and  Dynpos Autro notation from Det Norske Veritas(DNV). The contract covers installations onboard a BT-UDS dynamic positioned ultra-deep water drill ship ordered by Sigma Drilling, the joint venture between Norway’s Skeie Technology and Houston-based Vantage Drilling, from STX Offshore and Shipbuilding. The vessel, to be built at South Korea’s STX Jinhae yard, is scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2015. The new Dynpos ER class notation for Enhanced Reliability from DNV recognizes advances made in flexibility…

The two contract awards for the Sapphire Driller involve adding an additional well to the Sapphire Driller's current drilling program and three wells from another customer in the Ivory Coast. The contracts will commence in continuity with the current drilling program and have an anticipated duration of approximately 215 days. The contract awards will generate an estimate $34.5 million of revenue, net of taxes. Additionally, the Emerald Driller's customer in Thailand has exercised their six month option, extending the current contract through the middle of 2013. The exercise of the option adds approximately $23.4 million of backlog. Vantage…

Vantage Drilling Company ("Vantage, or the "Company") (NYSE Amex: VTG.U) (NYSE Amex: VTG) (NYSE Amex: VTG.WS) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to provide services related to design, construction and commissioning on behalf of Aker Drilling ASA ("Aker Drilling") of two Ultra deepwater drillships being built at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. ("DSME") shipyard in Okpo, Korea. The high specification drillships of DSME design will be equipped for dual activity operations in water depths down to 12,000 feet and with drilling depths of 40,000 feet. Furthermore, Aker Drilling has options to construct two additional drillships at DSME and may elect to expand the supervision agreements to include these drillships. Source: MARKET WIRE

Aker Solutions won a contract to supply a further 2,500 feet riser extension to the Dragonquest (formerly Titanium Explorer) rig, which is owned by Valenica Drilling and managed by Vantage Drilling Company. The order comes in addition to the original delivery of a 7,500 feet drilling riser system. The riser joints will be produced by Aker Solutions and delivered to the client in the summer of 2011. Valenica Drilling is a subsidiary of TMT, which has chartered Vantage Drilling Company to manage the Dragonquest rig.

Vantage Drilling Company announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to supervise and manage the construction and marketing of the Ultra-deepwater Drillship/FPSO, the "Dalian Developer" (previously known as MPF-01). Dalian Deepwater Developer LTD (DDD) has awarded the Company a management agreement to supervise and manage the construction, commissioning and marketing of the Dalian Developer. The Dalian Developer, which will be the world's largest drillship, is capable of operating both as a drillship and is upgradeable to incorporate extended well testing and production. The drillship is capable of drilling in water depths up to 10,000 ft. with a maximum drilling depth of 30,000 ft.

Vantage Drilling, a company organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands, has chosen both the AMOS Business Suite for Maintenance and Purchasing and the AMOS2 Enterprise Suite for Quality Management throughout its fleet. Vantage is dedicated to building and operating offshore rigs including technologically advanced dynamically-positioned Drillships and ultra-premium Baker Marine Pacific Class Jack-ups. Its first rig "The Emerald Driller" is scheduled for completion before Christmas 2008 at the PPL Shipyard in Singapore and is subject to a two-year drilling contract. SpecTec has integrated the AMOS solution with SAP's accounting system, and will also interface with their logistics supplier. This interface required coordination with a team of SAP and business process consultants.