Keppel Finds New Customer for Five Oil Drilling Rigs

Keppel Corp. Ltd. (BN4.SG) Thursday announced that it has got a new customer for five shallow-water oil drilling rigs originally ordered by Transocean Ltd.

The contract for the construction of the five jackup rigs will go to Borr Drilling Ltd., Keppel said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange.

Keppel, the world's largest builder of offshore oil drilling rigs, said Borr Drilling will pay US$216 each for the vessels, compared with the original contract price of US$219 million each. The rigs will be delivered starting the first quarter of next year, it said.

The new contract is likely to help Keppel keep its yards busy at a time when low oil prices have forced many of its customers to cancel or seek delivery delays of vessels on order. New orders have reduced to a trickle in recent quarters, forcing layoffs and a steep decline in profitability.

Write to Gaurav Raghuvanshi at Gaurav.Raghuvanshi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 01, 2017 09:19 ET (13:19 GMT)