Valaris reactivates another floater
Written by Nick Blenkey
Offshore drilling contractor Valaris Limited (NYSE: VAL) today reported that it is reactivating its Valaris DS-7 drillship to service a newly-awarded 12-well contract offshore West Africa
The contract is expected to commence in second quarter 2024 and has an estimated duration of 850 days. The total contract value is estimated to be $364 million. The company says that the contract requires minimal customer-specific upgrades to the rig and does not include the provision of any additional services.
President and CEO Anton Dibowitz said, “This most recent award represents the seventh contract awarded to one of our high-quality floaters requiring reactivation since mid-2021 and speaks volumes about our demonstrated track record of project execution when reactivating rigs and delivering operational excellence for our customers. We continue to take a disciplined approach to rig reactivations, and we expect this contract to generate a meaningful return over the initial firm term.”
Originally delivered to Valaris predecessor Ensco in 2013, the Valaris DS-7 is an ultra-deepwater DP3 drillship built by the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.
Today’s announcement from Valaris is in line with the recent insights into floater reactivation prospects made by London-based Maritime Strategies International (MSI). As we reported earlier MSI noted that, while the market for floaters has long since crossed an inflection point incentivizing the reactivation of cold-stacked tonnage, operators remain disciplined in their approach.
