Keppel, Transocean Agree Rig Deliveries Delay

Transocean Ltd announced on Tuesday an agreement with Keppel (KPELF) Offshore & Marine Ltd's shipyard, Keppel FELS, to defer the delivery and related payments of five high-specification jackups until 2020.

"The Super B 400 Bigfoot Class jackup drilling rigs are now scheduled to be delivered in two and three month intervals beginning in the first quarter of 2020," it said in a statement.

A jackup rig is a type of mobile platform with a buoyant hull and adjustable legs which can raise its hull up off the sea.

Ordered in 2013, the first rig had been scheduled for delivery during the first quarter of this year, with the other four units thereafter at four-month intervals.

Exploration companies have been deferring or cancelling orders as crude oil prices down 70 percent since mid-2014 force them to cut costs.

Reporting by Michael Shields and Henning Gloystein