Offshore drilling giant Noble Corporation has won a new contract for one of its semisubmersible rigs in the Americas.
Energy giant Shell awarded a contract to the 2009-built Noble Developer semisub. The deal is for a fixed duration of 180 days and is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2026.
According to the offshore driller, the firm contract value is approximately $70m including mobilisation and demobilisation.
The semisub has been available for work and without a contract for some time. The previous contract awarded to the rig was also by Shell, and the work was done off Brazil between April and August 2023.
At the time, the rig worked for $411,000 per day. The daily rate for the new deal is slightly below that and is around $390,000.
“The Noble Developer has previously drilled for Shell in this region, and we look forward to continuing this successful journey together,” said Blake Denton, Noble’s SVP of marketing and contracts.
Before this contract, the rig will drill three wells offshore Suriname for Petronas. The $84m contract is expected to begin around June 2025, with an estimated duration of 200 days.
In other related news from earlier this week, Noble revealed plans to divest the cold-stacked Pacific Scirocco and Pacific Meltem drillships and retire them permanently from drilling operations.
The rigs have been stacked for years. The first one has not worked since 2017 while the latter was last employed in 2020.
