Oslo-listed offshore drilling company Shelf Drilling has agreed to sell a jack-up drilling rig to UAE-based ADNOC Drilling.
Under the agreement, ADNOC Drilling, a drilling subsidiary of UAE's national oil company ADNOC, will buy Shelf Drilling's Shelf Drilling Journey jack-up drilling unit.
ADNOC Drilling will pay $77.6 million.
"The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and the rig is expected to be delivered during the first quarter of 2021," Shelf Drilling said.
The Shelf Drilling Journey rig is a Gusto CJ-46 design rig, delivered by China's China Merchants in 2019.
To remind, back in February 2019, Shelf Drilling signed a deal to buy two CJ-46 jack-ups from China Merchants for $87 million worth of its stock and agreed to charter two more rigs of the same type with an option to buy.
The first two three-legged jack-up rigs - Shelf Drilling Achiever and Shelf Drilling Journey - were delivered. However, the charter and the included option to buy the other two jack-ups of the same type were canceled in September.
Worth noting, Shelf Drilling's fleet status reports show the Shelf Drilling Journey arrived in Bahrain in July 2019, and that the rig has been idle - without work - ever since.
