Offshore driller Noble Corporation has admitted that the transformation of its company into a deepwater-focused player has been “challenging”, with initial operations on several of its newbuild drillships proving problematical.

The company, which reported Q4 2012 earnings of US $128m (up on the Q3 figure of $115m), also said revenues in Q4 were also higher at $966m compared to $884m in the prior quarter and $751m in Q4 2011.

Discussing the company’s outlook, David W. Williams, Chairman, President and CEO, said: “Although Noble added three state-of-the-art, ultra-deepwater drillships to its fleet during 2012 and placed two other drillships into service following significant enhancement and maintenance programmes, initial operations on these five rigs have not been as seamless as we had hoped, particularly with respect to certain critical components.

“Approximately 33% of the downtime days in the fourth quarter were attributable to these five rigs. In 2013, we are heavily focused on improving results from these rigs, our incoming newbuilds and the revenue efficiency of our entire fleet.”

Williams did point out that the company continued to hit its planned newbuild programme milestones, putting it in a position this year to take delivery of three ultra-deep drillships from shipyards – the Noble Don Taylor, Noble Globetrotter II and Noble Bob Douglas.

Capital expenditures in 2012 amounted to $1.7 Bn, including $587m (excluding capitalised interest) associated with the fleet expansion programme. At 31 December, 2012 approximately $2.7 Bn in Capex is required to complete the remaining 11 projects in the expansion programme, it added.

Total order backlog at 31 December, 2012 was approximately $14.3 Bn, up from $13.7 Bn a year earlier.

In the US Gulf, Noble said activity levels last year improved significantly in the floating rig segment, with contracting opportunities, especially for deepwater and ultra-deepwater capable rigs. The ultra-deep drillships Noble Bully I and Noble Globetrotter I, which started initial operations during the first half of the year, completed the fourth quarter with improved utilisation statistics compared to Q3 2012, as both rigs “continued to successfully address initial startup challenges”.

Offshore