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Transocean Philippines cancellation highlights rig deals turmoil Houston (Platts)--13Jan2009 Uncertainties in drilling rig contracts continued to rattle the industry Tuesday, as analysts assessed the impact of a decision by deepwater driller Transocean to cancel a $550,000/d contract in the Philippines because the operator could not post an escrow payment. The world's largest offshore drilling contractor mentioned the cancellation of a contract with Burgundy Global Exploration in its latest fleet status update released Monday but declined to elaborate. That report also confirmed the possibility of a contract confrontation with troubled North Sea operator Oilexco, which demobilized Transocean's Sedco 712 last week as it appeared headed for reorganization. Transocean described the Oilexco contract as remaining in "full force and effect" and said it plans to "pursue all appropriate remedies as may be necessary." Analysts at Houston's Tudor Pickering Holt described the Burgundy cancellation decision as "worth analyzing" with the market still working to understand the potential contract enforcement pitfalls of the credit crisis that began unfolding a few months ago. Noting the smaller size of privately held Burgundy, TPH said Transocean demanded the premium dayrate of $550,000 and required an escrow payment. "That implies they knew it was dicey," TPH wrote in a report. The firm referred to the cancellation as "another anecdote saying customer risk is bigger than contract risk." Credit Suisse analyst Arun Jayaram wrote: "While this is not good news, we view the risk of further cancellations as more limited relative to peers given the quality of Transocean's backlog, with an estimated 93% of customers of investment grade ratings or national oil companies." In its update, Transocean said only that it will review its options for mediation or legal action on the five-month contract with Burgundy that had been scheduled to begin in February for the semisubmersible C. Kirk Rhein, Jr. Questions about contract enforcement have grown more pronounced as the global credit crisis forces more operators to reconsider projects. The trend began a month ago in the Gulf of Mexico where US independent Callon Petroleum decided to suspend what had been considered a transformational project called Entrada. No one was immediately available at Burgundy in the Philippines to explain its plans in this economic environment. The company announced plans September 29 to commit investment of $715 million in a project to develop oil reserves in the Camago-Malampaya Field there. Jayaram noted that the rig is scheduled to complete its current contract this month off Mozambique for Sasol, giving Transocean time to find a new customer. Shares of Transocean rose 3% Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange to close at $51.98, just above their 52-week low of $41.95 and well below the high of $163. But Tuesday's increase followed a decline of 5% on Monday after the fleet report first appeared. Similar stories appear in Platts Oilgram News. See more information at http://oilgramnews.platts.com. |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Transocean - Rig-Betreiber |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | meinolf67 (14.01.09 09:52:06) |
| Beitrag: | 5 von 633 (ID:36369043) |
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