Offshore drilling contractor Northern Ocean has secured a contract award from oil major Shell for operations in Namibia.
Northern Ocean said that it won a contract award for the Deepsea Bollsta semi-submersible rig from Shell for work in a benign environment market. The contract is expected to start in the middle of the fourth quarter of 2022 and has an estimated firm duration of twelve months plus one six-month option.
According to the offshore driller, the contract with Shell adds approximately $124 million of firm revenue backlog to the company, excluding the option.
The Deepsea Bollsta is an enhanced and extended CS 60 E harsh environment design semi-submersible delivered by Hyundai Heavy yard in South Korea. Both Bollsta and Mira rigs are managed by Odfjell Drilling following an agreement with Northern in December 2021. After the management of the rigs was transferred from Seadrill to Odfjell, the rigs got new names.
Odfjell Drilling as the rig’s operations manager already started reactivation activities and mobilization preparation to meet the contract expectations.
To fund the reactivation costs, working capital, and other general corporate purposes, Northern Ocean retained Fearnley Securities, Danske Bank, Norwegian branch, DNB Bank, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, and SpareBank as joint lead bookrunners to advise on and effect a private placement of new shares, intending to raise gross proceeds of around $40 million.
Hemen Holding, the company’s largest shareholder with a 39 percent stake firmly expressed its intention of subscribing for shares in the placement to maintain its shareholdings.
The private placement was made last Friday, and the company succeeded to raise the targeted $40 million. Northern added that the placement attracted interest from existing and new Norwegian and international high-quality investors and was substantially oversubscribed.
Source: Rigzone
