Offshore drilling contractor Valaris announced on Tuesday that it has received a payment of $40 million from its joint venture with Saudi Aramco, ARO Drilling, representing a partial early repayment of its shareholder notes receivable.
Following this payment, Valaris has shareholder notes receivable totaling approximately $403 million, with $225 million due in October 2027 and approximately $178 million due in October 2028, the company said.
Valaris president and CEO, Anton Dibowitz, said, “ARO is an important strategic asset for Valaris, providing a unique partnership with the largest customer for jackups in the world. We are excited by ARO’s growth prospects over the next several years through its 20-rig newbuild program, backed by attractive long-term contracts with Saudi Aramco.”
Dibowitz added, “ARO is actively exploring financing options for its newbuild rigs and expects financing to be secured prior to delivery of newbuilds 1 and 2 in the first half of 2023. The partial early repayment of our shareholder notes demonstrates ARO’s confidence that the newbuild rigs will be financed by third-party financing and cash from ARO operations. We do not expect that either Valaris or Saudi Aramco will need to provide any additional financing to ARO to fund the newbuild program.”