Shares of Noble Corporation Ordinary Shares (UK) (NYSE:NE) edged up in the last session after the company published an updated monthly fleet status report that revealed a new contract with French energy company Total SA (ADR) (NYSE:TOT).
The new Total contract is for Noble Globetrotter II drillship. The contract involves work on a well off Bulgaria. Noble said the contract will last for about 100 days starting September until late December. Noble didn’t disclose the rate it is charging Total for the deployment of Noble Globetrotter II off Bulgaria.
Instead, it said that it will continue to receive a payment of $185,000 per day from Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) for Noble Globetrotter II. The payment from Shell relates to Shell’s agreement to idle the drillship for up to 730 days starting January 2017.
Contract expiry update
Save for the new Total contract, Noble latest fleet status report was largely similar to the previous one. The one notable change outside the new Total contract was that Noble provided an estimate on when it expects the current contract for Noble Houston Colbert to end. Noble Houston Colbert is contracted to JX Nippon and it is working off Qatar. The contract’s dayrate is unknown but it started in late December 2016 and was supposed to end in July 2017. NE now says the contract will end in late July 2017.
Noble’s fleet report also updated on the status of Noble Bob Douglas drillship, which is contracted to Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) for work in the Gulf of Mexico at an undisclosed rate. The contract started in early July 2017 and is expected to run its course by late July 2017.
Noble Bob Douglas will start working for Tullow after the existing contract with Murphy is over. Tullow’s contract for Noble Bob Douglas is set to start in October 2017 and end in early November 2017. But the rate Noble is charging for this contract wasn’t revealed.
2Q17 earnings report
Meanwhile, Noble is set to release its 2Q17 earnings report on August 3. The last time Noble reported quarterly performance, for 1Q17, it battered consensus EPS estimate but missed on revenue by about $3.1 million.
Shares of Noble rose about 5.0% to $3.88 in the last session.