Diamond Offshore executes two-year contract extension with BP subsidiary

Diamond Offshore (DO) announced that it has executed a two-year contract extension with a subsidiary of BP (BP) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for the Ocean BlackLion, commencing in September in direct continuation of the rig’s current contract. This contract extension represents approximately $350M dollars of additional backlog. Additionally, the company has entered into a drilling contract with Serica Energy to utilize the Ocean Patriot for two plug and abandonment wells in the U.K. North Sea. The program is estimated to commence in March and to continue for approximately 60 days. The contract represents over $10M of additional backlog, excluding mobilization.