Valaris announces fleet rationalisation and issues fleet status report

Fleet rationalisation actions

The company recently decided to retire three semisubmersibles from its fleet: VALARIS DPS-5, which has been idle since last working in 3Q24, as well as VALARIS DPS-3 and VALARIS DPS-6, which have been stacked for several years. The Company expects that these rigs will be removed from the global drilling supply and repurposed for alternative uses or scrapped.

Jackup VALARIS 75 has been sold for US$24 million. VALARIS 75 is a 25-year-old jackup that has been stacked in the US Gulf for five years. As part of the purchase and sale agreement, future operations are restricted to the US Gulf.

President and Chief Executive Officer Anton Dibowitz said, “We are committed to prudently managing our fleet and will retire or divest rigs when the expected future economic benefit for an asset does not justify its costs. Consistent with this approach, we have decided to high-grade our fleet by retiring three semisubmersibles: VALARIS DPS-3, DPS-5 and DPS-6, for which we see limited attractive, long-term contract opportunities, as well as selling jackup VALARIS 75. These actions reduce costs for idle rigs, benefit our cash flow and further focus our fleet on high-specification assets.”

Fleet status report

The Company has also issued a Fleet Status Report, announcing new contracts and contract extensions, with associated contract backlog of approximately US$120 million, awarded subsequent to issuing the Company’s previous Fleet Status Report on 30 October 2024:

600 day priced contract extension with TotalEnergies in the UK North Sea for jackup VALARIS Stavanger. The priced extension is expected to commence in 3Q25 in direct continuation of the current program. The total contract value for the priced extension is over US$75 million.

100 day contract for jackup VALARIS 249 with BP offshore Trinidad. The contract is expected to commence in 1Q26 in direct continuation of the rig’s previous program with another operator. The total contract value is approximately US$16.8 million.

One-well contract with Jadestone Energy offshore Australia for jackup VALARIS 247. The contract is expected to commence in March 2025 in direct continuation of the rig’s current program with another operator.

Two-well priced option exercised by BP Indonesia for jackup VALARIS 106. The option period has an estimated duration of 80 days and is expected to commence in May 2025 in direct continuation of the existing firm program. The operating day rate is US$95 000.

Short-term bareboat charter agreement extensions through 28 February 2025, for jackups VALARIS 116, VALARIS 146 and VALARIS 250, which are leased to ARO Drilling. Valaris and ARO remain in discussions with Saudi Aramco regarding longer-term contract extensions for these rigs.

 

 

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