Houston-based contractor Vantage Drilling has confirmed that a construction contract for a new high-specification drillship due to be built in Asia has been cancelled, as previously indicated (see DI, 30 September 2013, page 3).

Vantage has indicated that a joint venture, Sigma Drilling, set up by a Norwegian investment group, cancelled the order for the drillship from STX Offshore and Shipbuilding in South Korea, after STX notified Sigma last August that it was to restructure its operations and finances.

The driller reports that efforts to move the rig construction project to another mutually agreed shipyard failed. Sigma then sent STX a notice of termination on 8 January this year and informed the South Korean shipyard it would be seeking to reclaim previous payments made to the shipyard.

STX announced in November 2012 that it has secured a deal with Sigma Drilling for the construction of one dynamically-positioned drillship in a build contract worth US $672 million. That deal also included options for four more units, which together would have pushed the order value up to $3.5 billion.

The first unit was to be built at the STX Jinhae Yard in South Korea and was to be fitted out to drill in a water depth of up to 3,658 m (12,000 ft) to a total drilling depth of 12,195 m (40,000 ft). That first rig, the Palladium Explorer, was scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2015.