Ensco Lost 2 Petrobras Contracts
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Friday, May 6, 2016
Ensco Plc has concluded discussions with Petrobras regarding revised commercial terms with respect to some rig contracts.
Ensco 6003 and Ensco 6004 had their contracts terminated effective May 1, 2016 by mutual agreement.
Ensco said the two rigs covered by the discontinued contracts will be removed from Brazilian waters and permanently retired, a sign of the weak state of the oil market.
Previously, Ensco stated that one or two rigs might lose jobs. It's not a big surprise that 2 rigs lost their jobs given the current state of the offshore drilling market and problems at Petrobras.
Ensco 6002 has had its contract term extended to December 2019. Previous downtime on Ensco 6001 that could have been applied toward limit permitting contract termination has been reduced to zero.
Ensco had 5 rigs working for Petrobras. The drillship Ensco DS-5 was put out of contract due to bribery accusations.
Ensco defends itself and initiated arbitration processes against Petrobras and Samsung, which was the builder of the rig.