Offshore drilling firm Valaris has secured contracts with Shell Namibia Upstream B.V. and Shell Sao Tome and Principe B.V. offshore Namibia and Sao Tome and Principe, respectively, for its drillship VALARIS DS-10.
The contracts for the 2017-delivered offshore rig are each for one well. The exact start date for the first contract has yet to be determined, although it is expected to be in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The Sao Tome and Principe contract will follow on directly from the Namibia contract. The contracts are expected to last for 60 days each.
Valaris did not share the financial details of the contracts for the Samsung-built drillship.
The drillship had until recently been on a contract with Shell in Nigeria. A recent fleet status report by Valaris shows the rig is now on a one-well contract with TotalEnergies, offshore Nigeria, too. This contract is expected to expire in October 2021, after which the rig will move to drill for Shell in Sao Tome and Principe.
Worth noting, Shell will also use the rig - previously known as Ensco DS-10 - from March 2022 to September 2022 in Nigeria, under a contract announced by Valaris earlier this month.
