Keppel Corp has received the first $160m of a possible $352m from the sale of a series of jack-up rigs originally ordered by Tor Olav Troim’s Borr Drilling.
The Singapore rig builder confirmed on Thursday that the payment had been received on delivery of first of three offshore drilling units to Adnoc Drilling Co.
The three rigs were part of a series of five rigs that Keppel had been building for Oslo-listed Borr Drilling.
In October 2022, Keppel agreed to accelerate the delivery of three jack-up rigs to Borr Drilling or a third party to whom Borr Drilling intends to sell the rigs to between October 2022 and July 2023.
The construction contracts for the three rigs have since been novated by Borr Drilling to Adnoc Drilling, and this is the first of three rigs to be delivered to Adnoc.
As part of the novation agreement, Keppel said it will also receive full payments for each of the two remaining rigs on delivery.
Keppel said it expects to receive at least $352m for all three rigs in addition to down payments it had initially received from the previous customers for the rigs.
Tan Leong Peng, managing director (new builds) at Keppel O&M, said: “With the novation of the three jack-up contracts to Adnoc Drilling, we have even greater certainty of delivering these rigs, receiving more cash payments sooner, and reducing Keppel Offshore & Marine’s financial exposure to the legacy assets.
“Our high quality and cost-effective KFELS B Class family of rigs have a strong track record in the Middle East. Since the start of 2022, all nine of our proprietary jack-up rigs have been contracted for deployment in the Middle East.
“As drilling rig utilisation rates continue to increase, we are seeing more demand for high-quality rigs that our legacy rigs are well suited to meet.”
