Dryships Inc order two UDW drillships
DryShips Inc., (“Dryships”) today announced that it has exercised its option to acquire two advanced capability drillships for use in ultra-deep water drilling locations. The drillships, are to be constructed by Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (“SHI”) and are expected to be delivered from the shipyard in the third quarter of 2011. The expected delivered cost of the newbuild drillships is approximately USD800 million per unit. The company expects to receive shortly a firm commitment for the debt portion to finance construction and other payments. Mr. George Economou, Chairman and CEO of DryShips, commented: “I am very excited with our agreement to construct two premium, ultra deep water drillships, which is in line with our strategy of expanding our presence in the ultra-deep water drilling sector. We hope that our pending mandatory tender offer for the acquisition of Ocean Rig ASA will be approved by its shareholders in early June. The successful acquisition of Ocean Rig will give us the operating platform necessary to construct, complete and operate these two drillships to the highest standards. Going forward weplan to expand our asset portfolio with further acquisitions and explore other strategic alternatives including the possibility of spinning off this business unit to our shareholders.”