Pacific Bora Awarded Initial 3-year Contract with Chevron

Pacific Drilling is pleased to announce that the Pacific Bora has been contracted to Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, a wholly owned Chevron subsidiary to work on the continued development of the Agbami Field in Nigeria. Total revenue from the contract is expected to be approximately  $586million over the initial three year term. The rig is expected to mobilize to Nigeria in late February upon completion of client requested enhancements to facilitate completion activities.

This represents Pacific Drilling’s second contract with a Chevron subsidiary, including the previously announced contract for the Pacific Santa Ana, which is contracted to provide the first commercial application of Dual Gradient Drilling. Dual gradient techniques use a pump or other method to reduce the hydrostatic head from the mudline to the surface to that of seawater.

Pacific Drilling has two further ultra-deepwater drillships (Pacific Scirocco and Pacific Mistral) under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries, both of which are on target for on time delivery in March 2011 and May 2011 respectively, and are the subject of advanced discussions with various clients.

Source: Press release