Pacific Drilling, an offshore drilling contractor, has postponed the delivery of its newbuild drillship Pacific Zonda for the fourth quarter of 2015.

Namely, the delivery of the drillship, that is being built at Samsung Heavy Industries yard in South Korea, was postponed for October 2015 although the company’s previous plan was for the vessel to be delivered in the third quarter.

The Pacific Zonda is an upgraded Dual Load Path Samsung 12000 design dynamically-positioned, Dual Gradient capable, drillship operating in moderate environments and water depths up to 3,657 m (12,000 ft) using 183/4n BOP and 21? OD marine drilling riser. The vessel can accommodate 200 persons.

In addition to delivery delay, Pacific Drilling reported in its latest fleet status report that their 2011-built drillship Pacific Mistral, located in Aruba, is now out of work. The drillship was previously under contract with Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.

The company has a fleet of seven recently built ultra deepwater drillships capable of operating in 10,000 feet water depth and Pacific Zonda is its eighth drillship.

In the current market downturn, many drilling contractors have been forced to delay rig deliveries, Pacific Drilling now being one of them. Recently, reports have emerged about Pacific Drilling being looked at as a takeover candidate by Transocean, Ensco and Seadrill due to Pacific Meltem tender cancellation from Chevron. At the time, Offshore Energy Today asked about potential changes to the delivery date of Pacific Zonda and the company’s spokesperson replied: “There has been no change to the Zonda delivery date.”

Transocean is also one of the companies that recently delayed rig deliveries. Namely, the company agreed with Keppel to postpone deliveries for four of its jack-up rigs.

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com

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