Valaris, a leading offshore drilling contractor, has confirmed the commencement of a new drilling assignment for one of its semi-submersible rigs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM).

Valaris had announced two contracts in July 2023 for its Valaris DPS-5 semi-submersible rig in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The first contract involves a two-well assignment with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, a subsidiary of Occidental (Oxy), with a total value of approximately $22 million. The contract, with a minimum duration of 60 days, was originally scheduled to start in August 2023. According to Valaris, the rig has now initiated its assignment with Anadarko.

Robert Strong, Rig Manager, expressed, "Over the last month, the Valaris DPS-5 has accomplished a series of significant milestones. It successfully completed operations with Eni in Mexico, safely transitioned to the US GoM, cleared US customs, completed rig acceptance, and has now commenced operations with Oxy. These achievements would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the entire team."

Following the completion of this assignment, the rig is set to undertake a nine-well contract for a plug and abandonment campaign with Apache in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. This contract is expected to commence in October 2023 and has a minimum duration of 110 days.

Previously, the Valaris DPS-5 rig was employed by Eni on a three-well contract in 2022 for operations in Mexico. In February 2023, the rig began drilling the Yatzil-1 well, resulting in an oil discovery estimated to contain around 200 million barrels of oil in place. The DPS-5 rig, built in 2012 and formerly known as ENSCO 8505 from the 8500 Series, has accommodations for 150 personnel.

In its August 2023 fleet status report, Valaris disclosed a series of new contract awards for its rig fleet, with an associated contract backlog of approximately $180 million. This brings the company's total contract backlog to $3 billion.