By Rhiannon Meyers: October 26, 2015
Transocean and Royal Dutch Shell struck an agreement to delay the delivery of two new ultradeep-water drillships as the offshore drilling industry cools amid a global downturn in oil prices.
The Swiss-based offshore drilling contractor announced early Monday that it would push back the operating and delivery contracts of the Deepwater Pontus and Deepwater Poseidon by one year each.
Drillships are used to hunt for new oil and gas in waters deep offshore. With oil prices refusing to budge above $50 a barrel for months, oil companies have throttled expensive offshore exploration projects as they wait for crude to rebound.
The delay will not affect the duration or day rate of the original 10-year operating contracts on each ship, Transocean said. While the company did not provide specifics of the contract terms, investment banking firm Simmons & Co. said the ships’ rates are $519,000 per day.
The agreement will also not impact two other ultradeep-water drillships contracted by Shell, Transocean said. The Deepwater Thalassa was delivered in September while the Deepwater Proteus is scheduled to be delivered in December.
“We are excited about the progress that we have jointly made with Shell on all four high-specification, ultradeep-water drillships,” Transocean President and CEO Jeremy Thigpen said in a statement.
The news provided some optimism for the battered industry, since multinational oil giant Shell, one of the world’s leading global deepwater operators, has still agreed to contract the rigs, despite the tough environment, analysts at investment banking firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said in a note to investors Monday.
The decision also provides some immediate financial relief for Transocean, which still has more than $1 billion in remaining payments on the two rigs, Simmons & Co. analysts said. The delay gives the company more time to pay off those capital expenditures, boosting Transocean’s near-term liquidity.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
