Texas-based offshore equipment and services provider Noble has secured a memorandum of understanding for contracts with a total revenue potential of approximately $4 billion over 29 rig years on its five deepwater rigs operating offshore Brazil for energy major Petrobras.
Upon execution, these new contracts could increase Noble’s total backlog to more than $10 billion. Potential revenue includes a one-year option on the Paul Wolff rig and paid shipyard time during upgrades on three drillships.
In addition to the five rigs, Noble’s newly built deepwater semisubmersible, the Dave Beard, is scheduled to commence its five-year contract with Petrobras offshore Brazil in 2009.
David Williams, chairman and CEO, said: With the award of these contracts, we will not only boost our overall fleet backlog to more than $10 billion, we will also be able to move forward with our planned upgrades on each of our three drillships. We expect to perform the upgrade work on the rigs sequentially and will begin ordering the required long lead equipment once the contracts are formalized.