Valaris and its ARO Drilling joint venture have secured contract extensions covering four rigs, with BP, Saudi Aramco, Ithaca Energy and INEOS named as the customers, according to the company's fleet status report dated 2 November. The same report carries a second fleet decision: the reversal of the planned sale of the jackup VALARIS 111 for recycling.
The most detailed item concerns BP, which awarded a three-year service contract to support drilling work on the Mad Dog and Thunder Horse platforms, according to the report. A commitment of that length gives the operator continuity of drilling support across the two installations and gives the contractor a defined stretch of secured work.
The other extensions cover work for Saudi Aramco, Ithaca Energy and INEOS, rounding out a list secured by Valaris and its ARO Drilling joint venture. Fleet status reports of this kind are the regular channel through which drilling contractors disclose awards, options and fleet changes, and they are watched closely as indicators of utilization across the rig market.
On VALARIS 111, the reversal undoes a sale that would have removed the jackup from the fleet for recycling. Keeping the unit preserves drilling capacity that would otherwise have been lost and leaves it available to compete for future jackup work.
Taken together, the updates confirm continued work on the rigs concerned and keep VALARIS 111 within the company's marketed fleet. For the crews and operations teams involved, extensions of this sort bring a clearer schedule and continuity of activity, while for the wider industry each confirmed award adds to the pool of committed rig capacity that the market tracks as a measure of offshore drilling demand.
Source: Drilling Contractor
