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Offshore drilling firm Valaris said Monday it had secured a 12-well contract offshore West Africa for drillship VALARIS DS-7. Valaris will reactivate the drillship for this contract.
The contract, with an undisclosed client, is expected to start in the second quarter of 2024 and has an estimated duration of 850 days.
The total contract value is estimated to be $364 million. The contract requires minimal customer-specific upgrades to the rig and does not include the provision of any additional services, Valaris said. The drillship is currently stacked in Las Palmas.
Valaris President and Chief Executive Officer Anton Dibowitz said, “This most recent award represents the seventh contract awarded to one of our high-quality floaters requiring reactivation since mid-2021 and speaks volumes about our demonstrated track record of project execution when reactivating rigs and delivering operational excellence for our customers. We continue to take a disciplined approach to rig reactivations, and we expect this contract to generate a meaningful return over the initial firm term.”
Valaris also announced that it was increasing its 2023 share repurchase target from $150 million to $200 million.
Dibowitz said: “In May, we announced an increase in our share repurchase authorization to $300 million and our intent to repurchase $150 million of shares by year-end 2023. To date, we have repurchased $91 million in shares. As a result of this attractive contract award and our continued commitment to returning capital to shareholders, we are increasing our 2023 share repurchase target from $150 million to $200 million.”
