Noble announces decision to retire three semisub rigs
Noble Corporation Plc (“Noble”) today announced its fourth quarter and full year 2014 results, including its decision to retire three older semisubmersible drilling rigs. The announcement follows suit with a number of other large rig managers including; Transocean and Diamond Offshore Drilling announcing similar retirement plans. Noble will retire the cold stacked Noble Paul Wolff and Noble Driller alongside the idle Noble Jim Thompson asset. The Noble Jim Thompson was awarded a contract with Hess in September 2014 and Noble has announced that this contract will now be transferred to the Noble Paul Romano semisub, which mobilise from the Canary Islands to begin drilling on or around 1st September 2015. David W. Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Noble noted, "Rapidly declining crude oil prices during the fourth quarter further aggravated the offshore supply imbalance and contributed to an increasingly difficult environment for securing new contract commitments from our customers. Our financial performance in the quarter included an increase in idle time on several rigs, lower average daily revenues and margin contraction.