Northern Offshore Delays Deliveries for Two Jack-up Rigs
The Houston-based Rig player Northern Offshore has negotiated a nine month delay for the delivery of two high specification jack up rigs Energy Engager and Energy Encounter.
It will push back the delivery of the Energy Engager and Energy Encounter from a shipyard in China. The Energy Engager will now be delivered in December 2016 and the Energy Encounter will be delivered in June 2017.
Northern Offshore placed orders for the two LeTourneau Super 116E class jackups in October 2013, with the rigs are reportedly being built at COSCO Dalian shipyard in China.
The delay will allow the company to defer $22 million in owner furnished equipment expenditures for the units from calendar year 2015 to 2016.
“We sincerely appreciate the cooperation of our shipyard to allow us to delay the delivery of these units to enable us to better match contract opportunities in what we believe will be a more robust market at that time,” Northern Offshore president and CEO Gary Casswell.
The company also recently announced that Russian Oil Company Rosneft decided not to go forward with a rig contract previously agreed upon with Northern Offshore.
In January, Africa-focused independent CAMAC Energy terminated its contract with Northern Offshore for the drillship Energy Searcher amid a contract dispute.
