Offshore Drilling Contractor Vantage Drilling Completes Sale of Drillship to TEVA Ship Charter
Offshore drilling contractor Vantage Drilling International has successfully finalized the sale of one of its vessels, the Tungsten Explorer, to TEVA Ship Charter, a joint venture with TotalEnergies, the French energy giant.
The Tungsten Explorer, a sixth-generation ultra-deepwater drillship of DSME 12,000 design, will now be owned by TEVA, with Vantage holding a 25% stake and TotalEnergies owning the remaining 75%. The formation of the TEVA joint venture in early 2025 followed an announcement made last year.
CEO of Vantage Drilling, Ihab Toma, expressed his satisfaction with the completion of the sale, stating, “We are delighted to have completed the sale of the Tungsten Explorer. We now look forward to a productive and mutually beneficial relationship for the joint venture with our esteemed client and partner TotalEnergies.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Vantage will continue to manage the Tungsten Explorer for the next 10 years, with the option to extend for an additional five years. The drillship is scheduled to undergo recertification and upgrades at a shipyard following the sale, as indicated in Vantage Drilling’s fleet status report.
Additionally, Vantage Drilling’s Platinum Explorer, another ultra-deepwater drillship in its fleet, recently had its conditional letter of award (CLOA) extended by 30 days with an undisclosed client.
Meanwhile, TotalEnergies and its partners in an LNG project offshore Australia—Santos, KOGAS, and Petronas—resolved a legal dispute with Fluor Australia related to the Gladstone LNG project.