Offshore drilling giant Noble Corporation has revealed plans to divest two cold-stacked drillships to eliminate costs related to these units.
Noble said it would divest the 2014-built Pacific Meltem and 2011-built Pacific Scirocco rigs and prioritise resources on the existing marketed fleet.
According to the rig owner, it will divest these units by retiring them permanently from drilling operations including potentially scrapping the units.
The two rigs have been cold-stacked in Las Palmas for years. The Pacific Scirocco had its last deal in Guinea back in 2017 while the Pacific Meltem did its last work in 2020.
Noble became the owner of the rigs after acquiring Pacific Drilling back in 2021. The deal saw seven rigs join the Noble fleet several of which have already been sold.
“Our decision to retire these non-contributing assets is based on a continuous cost-benefit evaluation of idle capacity. These retirements will be immediately cash flow accretive and result in a leaner, fitter fleet composition for Noble going forward,” said Robert W. Eifler, president and CEO of Noble.
