Hanwha Ocean (formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) has delivered two ultra-deepwater floating drillships, the Valaris DS-13 and Valaris DS-14, to Valaris, the world’s largest offshore drillship owner.
The drillships “Valaris DS-13” and “Valaris DS-14” are part of a bulk order placed by Valaris in 2013. The delivery was delayed due to the company’s inability to make the remaining payments, including the decline in international oil prices. During this period, Valaris also filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. And in March 2021, Valaris entered into a contract modification agreement with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, as it was known at the time, in order to delay the delivery of the rig.
In August 2023, Valaris Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Valaris Finance Company LLC, disclosed a $400 million additional private placement, the net proceeds of which are expected to be used to purchase two ultra-deepwater floating drillships from Hanwha Ocean. Later that month, Valaris announced the exercise of an option for the two ultra-deepwater floating drillships.
Both drillships are of DSME 12000 design with a total cost of $1.2 billion. To date, the shipowner has paid only $900 million, which is 75 % of the total cost. “Final payments for the Valaris DS-13 and Valaris DS-14 are estimated at approximately $119 million and $218 million, respectively, for an aggregate purchase price of around $337 million.
On November 1, 2023, Valaris disclosed a large number of new and renewed contracts in its fleet status report. The contracts for four floating drillships and five jack-ups enable this shipowner to operate in Brazil, Angola, Mexico, Trinidad, Indonesia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The contract backlog for this series is approximately $480 million, excluding one-time payments such as mobilization fees and capital repayments. And at the end of October 2023, Valaris’ total order backlog increased to $3.2 billion.