Transocean, a provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells, has acquired 33.3% stake in the West Rigel, a newbuild harsh environment semisubmersible rig, for $500m.
Image: West Rigel rig. Photo courtesy of Seadrill Limited.
Built by Sembcorp Marine’s Jurong Shipyard, the West Rigel semisubmersible has been purchased by Transocean through a joint venture with funds managed and/or advised by Hayfin Capital Management.
As per the joint venture arrangements with Hayfin, Transocean, which has initially invested $83m in the joint venture, plans to make additional investment of $83m at a later date.
The deal to acquire the semi-submersible rig West Rigel was signed by Transocean with Sembcorp Marine in December 2017.
Sembcorp said that the West Rigel rig was originally contracted by North Atlantic Rigel (NARL), a subsidiary of North Atlantic Drilling (NADL) and Seadrill. NARL and Seadrill, however, applied for restructuring under Chapter 11 in the US.
The harsh environment newbuild semisubmersible, which will be renamed to Transocean Norge, is planned to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Planned to be available for charter in the first quarter of 2019, the rig is a Moss Maritime CS60 design harsh environment semisubmersible.
Transocean president and CEO Jeremy Thigpen said: “Our interest in the Transocean Norge, along with the recent acquisition of Songa Offshore, underscores our commitment to high-grading our fleet in a financially prudent manner to provide our customers with the drilling assets and expertise they seek for projects in harsh environment and ultra-deepwater environments.
“Given the strong demand and improving utilization and dayrates for this class of rig, we expect to secure work for the Transocean Norge in the near future.”