Keppel Explores Sale of Jack-up Rigs to Borr Drilling

By Aiswarya Lakshmi January 21, 2018

Singapore yard Keppel Corporation is considering a sale of jack-up rigs to Norwegian offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling, reports The Business Times.

The world’s biggest builder of oil rigs is seeking to offload six jack-up rigs for up to US$960 million to the Oslo-listed drilling firm headed by Tor Olav Trøim, said the report.

BT also reported that Keppel Capital has already hooked up with structured finance provider Clifford Capital to potentially extend a sale-and-lease-back arrangement for at least one jack-up contracted by Grupo R.

The global offshore oil drilling sector is slowly trying to emerge from an industry downturn since the oil price crash.

Talks between Borr Drilling and KOM first started last year for these jack-ups although a deal could not be reached mainly because the two parties could not agree on the pricing.

Keppel Offshore, delivered the jackup rig, SAGA, to Borr Drilling few weeks ago. SAGA was the first of five jackup rigs that Keppel is building for Borr Drilling.