Offshore rig owner Noble Corporation has won three extensions for its rigs but also received one notice of early termination.
According to Noble’s latest fleet status report, Japanese oil and gas major Inpex exercised the option for early termination of their time-based contract with the 2010-built floater Noble Deliverer working offshore Australia.
The termination does include an early termination fee and is expected to be effective from mid-December 2024, subject to completion of demobilisation. The rig has been on hire since July this year and was supposed to work for Inpex until Apr 2025 at a dayrate of $451,500.
As for the more positive developments, TotalEnergies has exercised an option to extend the contract of the 2011-built drillship Noble Gerry de Souza for approximately 140 days.
This extension will start following an approximate six-week period off-hire. The initial deal for the drillship started in February 2023 and will end in November 2024. The dayrate has been left undisclosed.
After the off-hire period, the extension begins in early January 2025 and should end in May next year. TotalEnergies now also has priced options with a total length of slightly over one year.
The 1983-built Noble Patriot semisub, formerly the Ocean Patriot, also got some more work. The new deal for sixteen wells with TAQA Bratani Limited in the UK will have an estimated duration of one year. The deal is expected to start in January 2025.
Diamond Offshore won the original deal for the rig before being acquired by Noble. It was a 35-well plug and abandonment contract with an estimated duration of three years. Now the deal comprises a 51-well P&A scope with an estimated four-year duration. TAQA Bratani also has a priced option for one additional well.
The final deal was an extension option by BP for the 2003-built ultra-harsh environment jackup Noble Innovator. It is for two wells with an estimated duration of 200 days.
BP took the rig on hire in June 2023 and it will work on a $135,000 dayrate until February 2025. Then the rig will work until May next year on a $140,000 per day deal which will then be bumped to $145,000 per day until September. During the two extensions starting in September 2025 and ending in November 2026, the rig will work for $155,000 per day.
